BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s net creation of formal jobs fell 26.6% in 2022 from the previous year, Labor Ministry figures showed on Tuesday, but it still showed a strongly positive result on the back of the post-pandemic recovery.

Brazil added a net 2.038 million formal jobs in 2022, down from 2.777 million in 2021, according to the government adjusted series.

The services sector again boosted the result, with 1.177 million jobs created last year.

There were job openings in the remaining four sectors covered by the Labor Ministry: retail (+350,110), industry (+251,868), construction (+194,444) and farming (+65,062).

In December, which traditionally records negative prints, the country closed 431,011 formal jobs, above the expectation of closing 371,500 jobs according to a Reuters poll.

The average monthly salary for new jobs created last year fell 4.5% from 2021, to 1,944 reais ($381.5), indicating that the improvement in the formal labor market has been based mainly on jobs with lower wages.

According to the ministry, the total number of formally registered workers in Brazil decreased 1% in December from the previous month, to 42.7 million. But in the year there was an increase of 5%.

The figures do not include nearly 40 million undocumented workers who do not have formal employment registration.

($1 = 5.0955 reais)