The unemployment rate in Brazil increased to 11.3 percent in the second quarter of 2016, up 0.4 percent compared to the first quarter, the highest since 2012, the Brazilian government said Friday.

The government's Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) reported that, compared with the first quarter of 2016, there were 497,000 more unemployed people. Comparing the figures from the same period last year, there are 3.2 million more people without jobs now, an increase of 38.7 percent.

During the second quarter of the year, the average salary was 1,972 reais (around 605 U.S. dollars), 1.5 percent less than in the first quarter and also 4.2 percent less than the numbers between April and June, 2015.

The increase in unemployment reflects the economic crisis that Brazil is currently facing. The South American country's economy contracted 3.8 percent in 2015, the worst in 25 years. This year's contraction is estimated to be 3.27 percent, according to market forecasts which will register, for the first time, a negative amount for two consecutive years.

Brazil's government revealed this week that the country lost 531,765 formal work positions in the first quarter of 2016. Enditem

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