AT A GLANCE: Brazil's electric-electronics sector still shedding jobs

Brazilian electrical and electronics companies saw 736 net jobs lost in October, considering total hires and layoffs, the second consecutive monthly decline after a pickup in August, local industry association Abinee reported.

In October last year, the industry lost some 4,135 jobs.

In a statement, Abinee president Humberto Barbato said the recovery in August was an isolated event as the upward trend did not continue.

"We didn't see the reaction we expected," he said, adding that positive expectations have been pushed back to the second quarter of next year. "Unfortunately, before that it's hard to see any reaction in the economy and industrial performance."

Between January and October this year, over 9,200 net jobs were lost in the electrical-electronics segment. The total number of those employed in the sector fell to 238,700 at end-October.

This week, Brazil's statistics bureau IBGE reported that the composite rate of underutilization of the country's workforce - including the jobless index, underemployment rate and potential additional labor force - was up to 21.2%, or 22.9mn people, in Q3.

That rate was 20.9% in Q2 and 18.0% in 3Q15. The official unemployment rate was 11.8% at the end of Q3.

IBGE released its broad national household survey this Friday, with statistics referring to 2015. According to the bureau, the crisis in the labor market last year was the worst ever recorded, with the number of unemployed people rising 38% in the year to 10mn by end-2015.