Efeitos das crises econômicas de 2014 e de 2020 sobre a população em idade ativa de cor ou raça autodeclarada preta no estado do Piauí

Effects of the 2014 and 2020 economic crises on the workers self-declared black people in the state of Piauí (Brazil)

Abstract

The general objective in this paper is to examine the effects of the economic crises of 2014 and 2020 on the workers self-declared black people in the state of Piauí (Brazil). The underlying hypothesis is that in this labor market one of the central components is racial inequality, marked by disparities that, especially in times of crisis, are accentuated. It is assumed that black people are the most negatively affected in terms of income, occupation, working conditions, etc. As methodological procedures of this research, which is of an exploratory qualitative and quantitative nature, the extraction, treatment, presentation and analysis of indicators of the labor market in Piauí released by the PNAD Contínua Trimestral carried out by the IBGE, selected in the time frame between January and March of 2012 and the January and March of 2021. The main results of the investigation validated the hypothesis raised, pointing out that proportionally in the state the number of self-declared black people composing the workforce in crises decreased more than in the other groups, while unemployment increased more significantly among self-declared black people. Besides, during economic crises, there was an increase in the income gap between people who declared themselves to be of black color or race in relation to people who declared themselves to be of white color or race. It is concluded that overcoming racial inequality, in the case studied here in its labor dimension, is a first-order challenge for the state of Piauí. In this sense, the design and implementation of active public policies should focus more on this specific group in order to effectively improve the working and living conditions of workers self-declared black people, which will certainly reverberate positively in the structure of the Piauí labor market.