Brazil Unemployment Rate Rises in Jan.

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) - Brazil's unemployment rate rose to 9.3 percent in January as employers let go workers who had been hired months earlier for the busy Christmas retail season, the government said Thursday.

The rate was up from 8.4 percent in December, according to the Brazilian Census Bureau, and came in at the high end of predictions by economists surveyed by the Agencia Estado news service.

But unemployment in Latin America's largest nation was virtually unchanged from the jobless rate of 9.2 percent for January 2006.

Declines in unemployment in Brazil are common toward the end of the year as companies hire more workers ahead of the Christmas season, and the rate typically rises as those workers are let go after the holidays.

The unemployment rate measures joblessness in Brazil's six largest metropolitan regions and is considered the benchmark index, but does not take into account Brazilians who are underemployed or working in the informal sector.

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