Mercado de trabalho formal da Paraíba: uma análise comparativa com o Nordeste e o Brasil no contexto da crise sanitária da Covid-19

Abstract

The main focus of this study is to examine the behavior of the formal labor market in Paraíba in the pandemic context and to make a comparative analysis with the formal labor markets of the Northeast and Brazil. As a theoretical framework, we sought to dialogue with studies that discuss the evolution of productive bases and labor relations in the regional and state economies from the experience of regional planning, in 1959, to the most recent phase, marked by crisis and macroeconomic instability in the country. From the methodological point of view, the research is exploratory and descriptive and is based on the analysis of quantitative indicators extracted from official sources of research on socioeconomic indicators and the formal labor market. Among the main results achieved, it was found that the Covid-19 pandemic caused adverse effects on the balance of formal employment in the three spatial areas and that the Services and trade sectors were the most affected in 2020. The Civil construction sector was the one that cushioned the impacts of the pandemic crisis on the level of formal employment, as it reopened its activities in 2020 after a federal decree that made this and other economic activities essential. It was observed that, in the following years, there was a gradual recovery of the labor market with the expansion of the stock of formal employment in the three geographic areas and this growth was led by the good performance of tertiary and trade activities. However, some structural distortions were found, such as the reduced percentage participation of the agricultural sector in the generation of jobs with a formal contract. Regarding the employment profile, it was possible to notice that statutory jobs appeared considerably in the Services sector compared to other economic activities. Finally, when analyzing the average nominal income of formal jobs in the nine northeastern states, it was found that, despite increases in the state values of this indicator, between 2020 and 2023, the average income levels gravitated around only two minimum wages.