Remote work possible for only 11% of the Brazilian workforce

Remote working was not an option for the vast majority of the population in Brazil, according to a study on the adoption of the home office format across the country in 2020.

Some 74 million people were employed in Brazil in 2020, of which 8.2 million (11%) in total worked remotely. However, the research points out that the realities in the country’s 27 states and the Federal District, where the capital Brasilia is located, varied widely.

While more than a fifth (23.6%) of those employed in the Federal District of Brazilians in the formal sector worked remotely, the percentage in the state of Pará, in the north of the country, was 3.5 %. After the Federal District, the Brazilian states with the highest percentage of remote workers were Rio de Janeiro (18.7%) and São Paulo (16%), both located in the southern region of the country, followed by Paraíba ( 12.2%) and Ceará. (ten%).

“There is a significant heterogeneity of remote workers between Brazilian states, which may reflect the deep structural differences between local economies and labor markets,” said Geraldo Góes, researcher at Ipea, co-author of the note with Felipe Martins and José Antônio Sena. Nascimento.

Regarding the profile of Brazilians working remotely in 2020, the researchers noted that although the majority of Brazilian professionals employed are men, women make up more than half of all remote workers. Additionally, there was a higher percentage of self-proclaimed white women with higher education among remote workers in all Brazilian states.

Separate research conducted at the start of the pandemic found remote working to be impractical for poor lower-middle and working-class Brazilians. According to the study, 17.5% of Brazilians from less privileged backgrounds who have managed to keep their jobs since the start of the Covid-19 crisis were able to work from home during the crisis.

The picture with regard to the frames is quite different. Another study suggests that the majority of senior executives in Brazil would like to continue operating remotely in a post-pandemic scenario.