RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — The unemployment rate in Brazil fell to 6.3 percent in December but held steady on average for the full year at 7.6 percent in 1999, the government said.
In December, holiday-season hiring and a decline in the number of people looking for work pushed unemployment down from 7.3 percent a month earlier, the government-run Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics said Tuesday.
Retail hiring jumped 2 percent in December, while service jobs increased 0.9 percent and manufacturing rose 0.5 percent, the institute said.
Unemployment peaked at 8.2 percent last year, soon after the government devalued its currency in January. Economists predicted a deep recession and double-digit unemployment, but the economy recovered sooner than expected.