Brazil’s economy created in May less than half the number of jobs forecast by economists, as the world’s second-largest emerging market struggles with slow growth and high inflation.

Brazil’s economy registered 72,028 new formal jobs last month, the Labor Ministry said today in a report posted on its website. Economists had forecast a gain of 150,000 posts.

President Dilma Rousseff’s administration is caught between inflation above the central bank’s target range and economic growth that has fallen short of economists’ projections for five straight quarters. Public discontent over government policies prompted 1 million protesters to march last night in Brazil’s streets denouncing corruption and rising prices and demanding better public services.

Civil construction jobs in May fell by 1,877, compared with the creation of 14,886 a year ago, according to ministry statistics. The service sector created 21,154 jobs, roughly half the 44,587 positions generated in May 2012.

Annual inflation through mid-June reached 6.67 per  cent, the fastest pace since November 2011, even after officials cut energy tariffs and raised the benchmark interest rate this year to cool price increases. First-quarter growth decelerated to 0.55 per cent from 0.64 percent during the last four months of 2012 as family consumption dropped.

Government-registered job creation number is a balance of posts created minus job eliminated. Registered jobs, so-called formal work, assure employees a range of benefits such as unemployment insurance, bonuses and retirement payments by the government.

Year-ago job numbers do not take into account jobs registered with delays. 

BLOOMBERG