Mortality from COVID-19 and the drop in employment rates in Brazil and around the world

Abstract

The year 2020 was marked by the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which resulted in an increase in the total number of deaths in most countries. All national economies were impacted in some way and almost all recorded reduced employment rates. There is no doubt that Brazil was strongly affected both in terms of human lives and the deterioration of its labour market. The goal of this Policy Research Brief is to compare the losses across these two dimensions experienced in 2020 by various countries based on available data, and to rank the severity of losses in Brazil relative to the rest of the world.