According to a study by the institute, the number of auditors fell 34.1% from 2012 to 2024, while wage earners grew 11.4%
Study of the IPEA (Institute of Applied Economic Research) relates the high rate of informal work in the country with the fall in the state’s capacity to ensure compliance with labor legislation. The technical note, published in March, is called “Growth without formalization of work: deficit of supervisory capacity and the need for recomposition of specialized bureaucracy”.
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Before 2022, the pattern was that the reduction of unemployment was accompanied by increasing the formalization rate of work. That is, more people with the signed work card. The exception was the COVID-19 pandemic period.
In 2024, according to data from IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), the unemployment rate reached lower levels since 2012: 6.6%. But the informality rate increased and reached 31.77%, the highest percentage of the period.
IPEA highlights the insufficient number of labor tax auditors, linked to the Ministry of Labor and Employment, to ensure employers respect employees’ labor rights. Between 2012 and 2024, the number of salaried workers grew 11.4%. In the same period, the number of labor auditors fell 34.1%.
In absolute numbers, in 2012 there were 19,038 workers salaried by auditor. In 2024, the proportion grew 79.95%, becoming 34,260 workers per auditor, higher than recommended by the ILO (International Labor Organization), which is 10,000 or 15,000 workers per auditor.
Ipea Planning and Research Technician Felipe Pateo, author of the study, says that auditors have 2 effects. A direct, to get workers without a formal contract to have the registration after a tax action, and an indirect, where the risk of being supervised makes employers do not commit irregularities.
“This risk, however, has fallen over the years. The chance of an establishment with employees being supervised fell from 11.3% to 3.8% between 2017 and 2023, so that the fear of being supervised becomes a third of what it was in the previous period.”says Pateo.
According to the IPEA study, if 1,800 new labor tax auditors are hired, which is the entire register of approved unified public tender, social security and administrative fines will increase to R $ 879 million. The amount is higher than the annual cost with hiring employees, calculated at R $ 560 million.
The competition for Labor Tax Auditor 2024-2025 has so far called 900 people approved in the vacancies provided for in the notice. Another 900 are in the reserve register.
With information from.
