This article analyzes the work polarization among households in Brazil. We define polarization as the difference between the observed ratio of workless households and the ratio that would have prevailed had work been randomly assigned to people. We calculate a series of polarization measures using the data from the Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios (PNAD) between 1981 and 2003. The results show that polarization in Brazil is smaller than in the developed countries. On the other hand, polarization has increased in the period, a result of a rise in the fraction of two-adults workless households.
polarization; work; Brazil; joblessness
