II. THE GOVERNMENT ACTIONS

 

II.4 Improving the Public Employment System

Another Federal Government objective is to endow the country with an efficient Public Employment System, integrating the professional qualification and the replacement of workers with the receipt of unemployment insurance. With such, the intention is to reduce the unemployment that derives from the deficient information about labor market opportunities, to enhance the unemployed workers' professional training and reduce eventual frauds in the concessions of unemployment insurance.

The placement of workers is becoming more modernized and informational in order to increase the Job Employment Services (Sistema Nacional de Emprego — Sine) efficiency and increase the rate of utilization of vacancies. In 1995, around 370 thousand vacancies were obtained, of which 50% were used. In 1996, around 154,402 positions were accomplished through Sine.

The professional qualification updating activities will be executed together with the National Professional Training and Development Secretariat as a part of the National Professional Education Plan.

The unemployment insurance attended, in 1996, around 4.35 million workers, which corresponds to a coverage of 5.6% of the working force. In 1990, this coverage was of 3.1%. Graph 9 presents the increase in coverage of the unemployment insurance during the 1989-96 period and a slight downfall in 1996.

GRÁFICO 9 UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE - RATIO OF COVERAGE TO PEA (a) % of petitioners to PEA Source: Mtb/Sepes/CSDAS/DOPSD

Besides the increasing coverage of the unemployment insurance, it is important to point out the fact that, in 1996, 99.05% of the petitioners were attended to. In 1986, the year in which the program started, the index of qualification was of 73.9%.

The total expenditure with the unemployment insurance reached, in 1995, the amount of US$ 3.1 billion, which represents 0.55% of the GDP. This percentage is similar to the one registered in the countries in which the unemployment insurance programs are being implemented for many years. As a proportion of the GDP, the expenditures with the unemployment insurance are increasing with time, since in 1990 they were only 0.1%. It is important to stress that these expenditures have significant macroeconomic importance, due to the volume of resources that are pumped into the economy, contributing, in this manner, to soothe the unemployment's effects. The average value of the benefit is, nowadays, 1.56 the minimum wage, representing around 41% of the average wage, figure equivalent to the one observed in other countries.

The unemployment insurance program is increasingly being articulated with Sine and with the National Professional Education Program. The retraining should be adequate to the qualification profiles demanded by the enterprises and the payment of the benefit is being coupled with the placement of workers provided by Sine. This articulation will increase the possibilities of reallocation of the unemployed worker. In this manner, what is intended is the construction of a Public Employment System that, although reflected in the international experience, adjusts itself to peculiarities of the Brazilian reality.