Almost as many people work on farms as in service jobs as Brazil grows food eaten around the world.
Farmer with his cattle
The number of Brazil’s workers involved in manufacturing is also large. Brazilians are proud to see that their clothes, shoes and even aircraft carry the ‘Made in Brazil’ label (often seen written as ‘Industria Brasileira’) and Brazilian companies also sell their goods abroad. Foreign manufacturing companies have set up factories in Brazil too.With such a huge population – about 200 million people – there are quite a few shoppers here! European car manufacturers Peugeot, Citroën and Fiat have three different sites between them across the South East of the country. Each plant employs thousands of workers, making cars that have been designed in Europe, in Brazil.Ship-building also creates jobs. The city of Niteroi, just east of Rio de Janeiro across Guanabara Bay, is home to numerous shipbuilding yards, alongside its successful port.
Unloading cargo at a port in Rio
Around 11.8 million Brazilians work for private companies with a written contract stating how many hours they must work and how much they’ll be paid. They’re the lucky ones. The number of people who work without a contract (and may also fail to pay taxes to the government) is much bigger, at around 18 million. These workers, about one in five of all workers in the country, are in what is called Brazil’s ‘informal sector’. They have no legal employment rights.The types of jobs informal workers do include shoeshine boy (these are people – not always boys – who shine people’s dusty shoes, usually on the streets), street food vendor, windscreen washer (at traffic lights), kitchen worker and busker.