Brazil created 165,827 formal jobs in August, exceeding the 95,700 forecast and rising from 58,568 in July. The result was the strongest since March, based on 2,294,563 hires and 2,128,736 layoffs. Employment increased across all five major economic activity groups, led by services with 110,346 jobs, followed by construction, industry, commerce and agriculture. All states recorded gains, with São Paulo posting the largest increase in absolute terms and Paraíba the strongest relative growth. Jobs rose for both men and women, while people aged up to 24 accounted for 128,997 new positions. Workers with completed secondary education recorded the largest increase, and the average real hiring wage was broadly stable at R$2,410.74. Year-to-date employment growth reached 2.41%, with 1,134,033 jobs created. Unemployment stood at 5.3% in the rolling quarter ended in August, unchanged from the previous quarter and matching expectations. Despite strong payrolls, job creation remained weaker than in 2024 and early 2025, consistent with gradual labor-market cooling and expectations for GDP to be near flat in 3Q26. The Brazilian real strengthened to 5.20 per dollar alongside gains in other emerging-market currencies, while traders remained cautious ahead of October’s presidential election. Recent polls placed President Lula and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro within the margin of a technical tie in a potential second-round contest. Bolsonaro is viewed by markets as more fiscally restrictive amid elevated domestic yields and weak business activity. The 10-year government bond yield fell to around 14.13% in late September, and the employment data did not dent expectations for continued Selic easing. The earlier topic record cited a Bloomberg median forecast of 106,900, indicating a discrepancy between the reported forecast figures.