O mercado de trabalho na fronteira do agronegócio: Quanto a dinâmica no Matopiba difere das regiões mais tradicionais?

The present study has the main objective to analyze the labor market dynamics in the Matopiba region and to compare it with the evolution of the Brazilian agribusiness labor market as a whole. The paper is part of a broader research project that aims to make a diagnosis of the socioeconomics and the institutional conditions of the Brazilian Northeast and North macro-regions, in order to subsidize the implementation of public policies. Using the data from the Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios (Pnad) Contínua between the first quarter of 2012 and the first quarter of 2016, it was clear that, on the one hand, although agribusiness generated an increasingly smaller number of jobs within the sector itself, on the other, managed to boost the labor market of Matopiba, increasing the average income of the employed population of the region and improving the local services sector. Behind this seemingly contradictory dynamic there is the success of Brazilian agribusiness, which, through more capital-intensive and labor-saving technologies, has been able to increase its productivity and generate increasing income, freeing up workforces to other sectors. In Matopiba, the income generated by agribusiness has warmed the service sector, which in turn has boosted the local labor market, allowing the incorporation of a larger volume of employees. Although this dynamic was clear in Matopiba, in the rest of the country it is possible to observe only that agribusiness reduced the employed population in its activities.