Turnover and quality of employment in Brazil

Several recent studies have shown that the main Brazilian market problem seemsto be its low job quality level rather than lack of job creation. This article gathers newevidences on this topic, mostly on labor turnover. In fact, Brazil displays the highest laborturnover in the world for comparable measures. The paper also studies how a high laborturnover can partially explain the low quality of jobs observed in Brazil. The theoreticalargument is that labor productivity depends essentially on the level of human capital, eithergeneral – through basic education – or specific – through on-the-job training. Since a highlabor turnover is a disincentive for training investment, it lowers specific human capital and,therefore, labor productivity. Finally, some labor market legislation changes are proposedaiming at reducing labor turnover and increasing labor quality. JEL Classification: J63; J24.