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Businessman’s Video in Santa Catarina Goes Viral for Linking Store Closures to Difficulty in Hiring, Citing Sick Leave, Criticism of Social Programs, and Strong Reactions on Social Media Amid Debates on the Labor Market, Wages, and Public Policies in Brazil.
This week, a businessman turned to social media to record a video in which he claims to have closed the doors of his own store in Santa Catarina because he cannot maintain operations without employees.
In the recording, Hemerson da Silva states that the difficulty in hiring has intensified in recent days and attributes the situation to social programs, citing Bolsa Família as one of the reasons why, according to him, some young people “prefer to live off aid.”
Recorded at the store entrance, the video shows the businessman speaking directly to the camera while discussing the impact of employee absences and the impossibility of handling the service alone.
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The statements spread across various profiles and pages, generating criticism and debates about wages, working conditions, and the functioning of income transfer policies.
Businessman’s Video and Account of Store Closure
Right at the beginning, Hemerson reports that the routine had already been pressured by a lack of staff at other locations and that, that week, the situation worsened.
According to him, an employee had been on sick leave “due to a medical certificate” for two weeks and, during the same period, the sales manager had fallen ill with flu-like symptoms.
“The employees who were here got sick and all. But this time, I have one employee with a medical certificate for already two weeks (…) more than four days. Anyway, today our sales manager got very sick with a terrible flu. (…) So there’s no way to work alone here,” he stated in the video, explaining that he couldn’t keep the business running without support in service.
Following that, the businessman said he had never faced a situation like this before and expressed seeing a contradiction between complaints of job shortages and the difficulty in hiring in the local commerce.
“It’s desperate for me, as a businessman, in a country that complains so much about not having jobs, going hungry (…) So it’s aid here, aid there. And Santa Catarina has so much job reserve. So many people in commerce. There are no employees,” he stated.
Bolsa Família and Debate on Social Policies
Bolsa Família is the federal income transfer program aimed at families in situations of poverty and extreme poverty, relaunched with new rules and additions based on family composition.
In 2025, the benefit has a minimum value per family and complements that vary with the presence of children, adolescents, and pregnant women, among other criteria established by the government.
Data released in 2025 in reports and official communications indicate that the program serves tens of millions of people through millions of families and moves billions of reais per month.
In figures released for payments in 2025, the average monthly transfer amount per family appears to be around about R$ 670, varying according to the month and the profile of the audience served.
Still, the video does not present data that directly connects receiving the benefit to the refusal of job offers, and the businessman does not detail the salaries offered, work hours, type of hiring, or open positions.
Without that information, it’s not possible to measure, solely based on the account, the weight of each factor in the difficulty of filling positions.
Labor Market in Santa Catarina and Lack of Employees
Although the outburst attributed the lack of workers to Bolsa Família, the debate occurs in a context where companies and sectoral entities report difficulties in hiring in different regions.
In Santa Catarina, communications from the state government about job intermediation by Sine highlight a market with high demand for workers and recruitment actions in municipalities, as well as successive announcements of thousands of open opportunities in the state throughout 2025.
In institutional notes, the state management also cites indicators of low unemployment rates in Santa Catarina and the holding of job fairs to bring companies and candidates together.
Meanwhile, entities linked to commerce have reported increases in starting salaries across various retail occupations and, at the same time, complaints about labor shortages in specific roles, especially during peak periods.
At the national level, analyses from entities and economic reports have associated the “labor shortage” to factors such as turnover, the mismatch between qualifications and job requirements, migration to self-employment, and changes in job search profiles, as well as wage pressures in some segments.
However, these interpretations vary by sector and region and are not limited to a single reason.
Repercussions on Social Media and Criticism of the Businessman’s Discourse
After going viral, the video began to receive responses from internet users who challenged the explanation provided by the businessman.
Some of the criticisms pointed out that if the company cannot compete with the value of a social benefit, the problem lies in the remuneration or the conditions offered.
“You need to pay decent wages. There are plenty of jobs; people are choosing. This talk of yours only resonates with wealthy right-wingers.”, wrote a profile on X.
In another message, a follower commented: “For Bolsa Família to be more attractive than your company’s salary, it’s better to close that place down.”.
There were also suggestions that the businessman should involve family members to keep the store running.
“Put your family to work. I bet you have children, nephews, and godchildren… but none of them can be exploited, right? But the outsiders can. (…).”, wrote a third user.
The responses circulated alongside the video, broadening the discussion about what explains the hiring difficulties in retail, especially in cities with job openings and low unemployment.
Amid the repercussions, the case also reignited a recurring dispute on social media: the one that compares the value of social benefits with entry-level wages and uses this calculation to defend, criticize, or reinterpret public policies.
With the video still circulating and without public details on the positions offered by the businessman, how to separate individual perception from the broader economic scenario in the discussion about the lack of workers?
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