Almost 10 million Brazilians did not receive income and 19 million were removed from work in May due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) report on Wednesday, says Folha de S.Paulo.

The survey is a version of the National Continuous Sample Survey, known as PNAD, with a focus on COVID-19. It also detected that there was a reduction in the income of Brazilian workers.

In total, Brazil had 84.4 million employed workers in May, said the IBGE. Of this total, 22.5% were out of work in the week of the survey and 18.6% were out of work due to social distancing.

The highest rate of dismissal was among informal workers: domestic workers without a formal contract (33.6%), public sector employees without a formal contract (29.8%) and private sector employees without a formal contract (22.9%).

According to the IBGE, the effective income of Brazilian workers fell 18.2% in May, to BRL 1,899. Among those who remained at work, almost a third worked less than usual.

The IBGE survey also identified that 38.7% of Brazilian households received some type of monetary aid related to the pandemic. The average amount received by households was BRL 847.