Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1361377
10 February, 2021 Strategic Update on Americas Latin America • Brazil's unemployment rate ended 2020 at 13.9% the average jobless rate in 2020 was the highest since comparable records began in 2012. The average unemployment rate last year was 13.5%, up from 11.9% the year before. • Argentina's formal labor market lost 202,000 jobs in the private sector in 2020, a drop of 3.4% from the previous year. An additional 40,000 self-employed or freelance jobs were lost in the same period, a fall of 1.4%. The employment figures would have been starker without the impact of coronavirus-related emergency support measures such as the Ingreso Familiar de Emergencia and Asistencia al Trabajo y la Producción payments, as well as decrees suspending lay-offs and impacting redundancy packages. North America • Canada's labor market rebounded in February 2021 after authorities began lifting lockdowns, a striking sign of the nation's economic resilience to the second wave of the pandemic. The economy added 259,200 jobs, well ahead of expectations for a 75,000 gain resulting in the first month of gains since November, when a new set of containment measures was implemented to curb a surge in Covid-19 cases. The unemployment rate fell to 8.2%, the lowest since the beginning of the pandemic, from 9.4% in January. • Mexico's new daily minimum wage became effective on January 1, 2021, rising from MXN$123.22/day to MXN$141.70/day (USD$7.08/day). The minimum wage for the Free Zone of the North Border will increase from MXN$185.56/day to MXN$213.39/day (USD$10.66/day). Mexico's minimum wage is the lowest in the Americas, on par with Haiti, and the lowest in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. • The United States House of Representatives passed the PRO Act which would gives workers more power during disputes at work, adds penalties for companies that retaliate against workers who organize and grants some hundreds of thousands of workers collective- bargaining rights they do not currently have. It would also weaken "right-to-work" laws in 27 states that allow employees to forgo participating in and paying dues to unions. The PRO Act now moves onto the Senate where it faces an uncertain fate.