Around 8.3 million people aged 60 or over were working in 2024. With this contingent, Brazil reached a record employment level for this age group since the survey began in 2012.
Of the 34.1 million elderly people, one in four (24.4%) was employed last year.
The revelation is part of the Summary of Social Indicators survey, released this Wednesday (3) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).
Since 2020, the level of employment of elderly people has grown:
- 2020 – 19,8%
- 2021 – 19,9%
- 2022 – 21,3%
- 2023 – 23%
- 2024 – 24,4%
Pension reform
IBGE analyst Denise Guichard Freire, responsible for the chapter, points out that, in addition to the increase in life expectancy, the pension reform, enacted in 2019, is one of the explanations for the increase in employment.
“Certainly the pension reform is one of the factors that lead people to have to work longer, to contribute more time to be able to retire”, he states.
The study shows that the unemployment rate – popularly known as the unemployment rate – of this population was 2.9% in 2024, the lowest in the IBGE historical series.
For comparison purposes, unemployment for the total population was 6.6% last year.
When dividing by age, IBGE identifies that in the group aged 60 to 69, 34.2% were employed. Almost half (48%) of men worked. Among women, they were 26.2%.
In the group aged 70 or over, occupancy was reduced to 16.7%. Among men, 15.7%. In the group of women, 5.8%.
Own account and employer
IBGE collects information on how elderly people perform in the job market. A relevant fact is that more than half of them (51.1%) were self-employed (43.3%) or as an employer (7.8%).
For comparison purposes, in the employed population as a whole, self-employed and employers account for only 29.5% of workers.
In the population as a whole, the most common form of employment is as a formal employee (38.9% of workers). Among the elderly, only 17% had this condition.
Performance
When analyzing income data, IBGE identified that elderly people received R$3,561 monthly, on average, exceeding the value of the population aged 14 or over as a whole (R$3,108). This means that seniors earned 14.6% more.
In relation to formalization, people aged 60 or over are at a disadvantage in relation to the total number of workers. The country’s rate was 59.4% of those employed. In the elderly group, 44.3%.
The IBGE considers informal employees without a formal contract, and self-employed workers and employers who do not contribute to social security.
