White, Blacks and Brown in the Labour Market in Brazil A Study about Inequalities Ana Lucia Saboia (IBGE) João Saboia (UFRJ) Social Statistics and Ethnic Diversity International Conference CIQSS and INED Montreal – 6/8 December 2007

Paper Contents Introduction Some social indicators about white and black/brown population in Brazil General characteristics of the labour market in Brazil Workers in occupations with university degree by colour Final considerations

Source of Data Monthly Employment Survey (PME) March de 2004 Sample size: households (Only Metropolitan Regions) National Sample Household Survey (PNAD) Sept 2004 and 2006 Sample size: households (It covers the whole country) Both carried by Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics (IBGE)

Introduction The main goal of this paper is to focus on the subject of inequalities between white and black/brown population from the point of view of the labour market, especially in the case of workers with university degree. It also intends to contribute to a debate that is now present in the Brazilian society which is the issue about affirmative action policies, especially to guarantee vacancies for the black and brown population in the universities. The authors agree on the importance to distinguish and characterize the population according to the ethnic origins in order to measure and explain discrimination. It also contributes to the discussion on the methodological considerations about how to count and on the most common practices in this area respecting country differences.

Social Indicators on White, Black and Brown Population Distribution by colour Infant mortality rate (data of 2004) Illiteracy rate Distribution by colour within the 10% poorest and 1% richest

Some General Characteristics of the Metropolitan Labour Market according to Colour/Race In this section the information presented is based on PME 2004 Activity conditions (employment and unemployment rates) Average years of study Distribution of labour force by forms of insertion Average number of years of study by colour/race and activity condition

White and Black/Brown Population in Occupations with University Degree In this section the information presented is based on PNAD The idea was to select people's typical occupations that require university degree to verify in what extent similar people with the same level of schooling would be differentiated in the labour market according to their colour or race.

Conclusions This study showed the unfavourable situation of blacks/brown compared to whites in the social indicators and in the labour market in Brazil. The first ones have lower education levels and, therefore, assume the worst occupations receiving smaller revenues. In spite of a certain balance in the distribution of whites and black/brown in the labour market, corresponding approximately to the distribution of the Brazilian population according to colour, when analyzed the occupations that require university degrees, it was verified that the black/brown participation is much inferior to whites, showing an unequal profile inside the society. The most balanced situation in the distribution of professionals of third degree level happens among social workers which represents the occupation with smaller remunerations among those with university degree. Even in this case, only one of each three workers is black/brown.

The comparison in remuneration terms between white and black/brown workers for each professional group considered is unfavourable to blacks/brown, however in a much smaller intensity than that found when considered all labour force. While white workers receive about twice the black/brown revenues, when just considered the workers with superior education, the gap of remunerations falls to only 15%. In this measure, it can be inferred that once reached the university level, blacks/brown receive revenues comparable to those of white professionals with university degrees. Although the remuneration differences between whites and black/brown workers with university degrees can be associated to other factors such as workers' sex, age, level of specialization, region where they live and other conditions, the result systematically favourable to whites (with very little exceptions), suggests that some level of discrimination could exist in the Brazilian labour market, even among workers with university level. Such results corroborate other studies that identify the level of education as the main reason for the revenue unevenness found in the country. These authors also identify colour/race discrimination as one of the causes for the inequality in the revenues, however with reduced effect compared to the role of education.

Today in Brazil the colour/race system of classification is in the center of the debate among social scientists and statisticians. This paper shows how important is to have statistics related to ethnic diversity. We believe to have answered affirmatively to two of the conference main questions: Should we count?; Why count? We showed good reasons to answer YES. In the case of Brazil, IBGE has been counting the whole population since 1872 distinguishing its colour. Now one central issue is how to count with a better system of colour/race classification capable to show the ethnic diversity existing in the society.