Changes in the socio-occupational structure of the Brazilian metropolises, 1991-2000

Abstract

The paper shows the results of a comparative study with ten metropolises and an urban agglomeration in Brazil, trying to observe the similarities and differences among their socio-occupational structures and their evolution between 1991 and 2000. It answers the following questions: 1) how the productive restructuring affected the socio-occupational structure of each metropolis at the end of the last century; 2) whether the evolution between 1991 and 2000 was similar in the agglomerations that were studied; 3) who are the components of the different socio-occupational categories in the metropolises of the large Brazilian regions. The demographic growth of all the studied metropolises has been higher in the periphery than in the central part of the city. Although the metropolises are specific, there is a certain similarity in their structures: in the year 2000, all the middle jobs were predominating. In the Southeast, the loss of leaders is clear, but only in São Paulo has a meaningful increase in the basis of the social pyramid been noticed.