The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Household Income Composition in The Northern Semiarid Region
Northeastern Semiarid; Income; Labor Market
The objective of the study is to analyze the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on the level and composition of income of families in the Northern Semiarid. Considering that the Northern Semiarid region is an area punished by drought, unemployment and poverty. The concern regarding the income composition of families in the Northern Semiarid increased, when on March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that Brazil was facing a pandemic named as COVID-19 highly contagious and lethal. However, with the arrival of COVID-19, there is increased attention regarding the socioeconomic impacts on families that were already vulnerable in the region. It is estimated to have occurred between January and May 2020 a loss of more than 248,000 formal jobs (AQUINO and NASCIMENTO, 2020). The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) (2021) reported that the Northeast is one of the main regions responsible for the record increase in the unemployment rate of 14.7% in the country. However, for this study, the data collected were from PNADC and extracted by the software RStudio. In view of this, the preliminary results showed that the Brazilian capitals have the highest proportion of people in the labor force, with 67.6%. The lowest percentage occurs in localities classified as rest of the Federation Unit, i.e., outside metropolitan regions, where, at the national level, only 61.4% of people aged 14 years or older are within the labor force. That in SS, in 2019, the estimate is that virtually only half of the population is within the labor force. This indicates, even before the pandemic, the greater difficulty of participating in the labor force both in the Northeast generally and in SS specifically. Finally, it is expected that the study of employment and income focused on the specific reality of the Northern Semiarid region, from the approach of both the issues of local market structure and the attributes of workers and households, will be input for strategic public policies directed to the recovery and improvement of the living conditions of the population.