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 Civil construction was the sector of the Brazilian economy that recorded the highest increase in job positions, in February, in comparison with the same period last year. The expansion rate was almost 400%.
In February 2007, 5,522 new positions were created in the sector, whereas in February 2008, the volume grew to 27,574. The data were culled from the General Records Office for Employment and Unemployment (Caged), which was disclosed yesterday (18) by the Brazilian Ministry of Labour.
The previous record for the sector was established in 2006, when 14,993 positions were created. "Despite the previous records, civil construction posted the best result ever, virtually twice as much as 2006," stated the minister of Labor, Carlos Lupi.
Compared with February 2007, all of the productive sectors posted growth. In absolute terms, the sector that created the highest number of new jobs was services. Of the 204,963 job positions created last month, 74,441 were in services.
"The expansion in number of job positions in the services sector is mostly due to the return to schools," he explained. The education sector single-handedly created 31,489 new positions.
Cell Phones
A total of 1.2 million new mobile phone lines were enabled in Brazil in February, according to data supplied by the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel). The figure represents an increase over the 469,000 new lines enabled in the same month of 2007.
It was the best month of February in the last eight years. Subscribers to the Personal Mobile Service (SMP) in Brazil total 124 million, which represents growth of 1.03% compared with January. Prepaid subscribers account for 80.87% of that total, whereas post paid customers amount to 19.13%.
In the last 12 months, there were 22 million new subscribers in Brazil, growth of 22.67%. The expansion in teledensity has been maintained. Expansion rate in February compared with the same month of 2007 was 0.9%. Teledensity rate in Brazil is 65.09. Teledensity shows the number of telephones in use per 100 inhabitants.
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