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Supermarkets in Espírito Santo Accumulate 6,000 Vacancies Without Filling While Brazil Records Unemployment at 5.6%, the Lowest in IBGE Series; Sector Demands Quick Answers.
The lack of workers has become a brake on the growth of Capixaba supermarkets. The Capixaba Supermarket Association (Acaps) reports 6,000 job openings that remain unfilled, despite recent hiring. This number helps explain why companies have been adjusting shifts, outsourcing processes, and rethinking stores.
The issue dominated the opening of the Acaps Trade Show 2025, held on Tuesday (9/16), at the Carapina Pavilion, with retail and industry leaders calling for measures to enhance employability. The event runs from September 16 to 18.
The central question is straightforward: why, even with more people working, are thousands of vacancies still without ready candidates? Experts and executives point to qualification as an immediate bottleneck, in addition to structural factors of costs that pressure retail.
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Supermarkets in ES: Where Are the 6,000 Vacancies and Why Aren’t They Filled
Supermarkets in Espírito Santo directly employ about 60,000 people and 120,000 indirectly. Nevertheless, 6,000 positions remain open, without qualified professionals, according to Acaps. The sector’s message is clear: there is real demand for labor, but the skills relevant to stores are lacking.
Between January and July 2025, the state opened 7,700 formal vacancies in the segment, nearly the same volume as the opportunities available today. The mismatch between supply and filling has become a limiter of expansion for medium and large networks.
The recurring assessment at the event and in the sector is that it is necessary to bring close a portion of the population on the margins of employability and accelerate basic training for entry-level positions, such as restocking, customer service, and cash operation. Without this, vacancies remain idle.
Hot Job Market, Unemployment Falls to 5.6%, Income Rises and Despondency Decreases
The IBGE showed that the unemployment rate in the quarter ending in July 2025 fell to 5.6%, the lowest since the start of the series in 2012. The employed population reached 102.4 million, also a record. This movement reinforces the pressure for qualified personnel.
In addition, real average income reached R$ 3,484, a new maximum level, while the number of discouraged individuals dropped to 2.7 million people. In summary: more people are working, earning a little better, and returning to job seeking.
In Espírito Santo, the local rate remains below the national average in 2025, reinforcing the Capixaba paradox: a heated business environment but with qualification gaps that prevent the rapid filling of operational vacancies in the food retail.
Brazil Cost in Focus: How Labor Shortages Weigh on Retail Cash Flow
Industry leaders remind that the Brazil Cost continues to consume competitiveness. Official estimates indicate an annual impact close to R$ 1.7 trillion due to tax, logistical, bureaucratic, and productivity obstacles. When trained individuals are lacking, the costs increase further.
At the fair’s opening, regional executives associated the lack of labor with this total cost of doing business in the country. The reading is pragmatic: an unfilled vacancy makes operations more expensive, hampers expansion, and ultimately pressures consumer prices.
For supermarkets in ES, which operate with traditionally narrow margins, the combination of structural costs and worker shortages demands quick decisions: invest in training, redesign scales and processes, and evaluate automation where it makes sense.
What Is Being Done: Acredita No Primeiro Passo, Qualification and Inclusion
Capixaba companies are considering joining the Acredita no Primeiro Passo, a federal program aimed at families from the CadÚnico. The proposal allows hiring vulnerable groups with temporary benefit maintenance, increasing formal insertion and onboarding in store routines.
According to MDS, the program focuses on employment, professional qualification, and entrepreneurship, targeting women, youth, people with disabilities, and Black individuals. For retail, this opens a funnel of entry-level talent that can be developed “on the job.”
In addition to Acredita, networks are expanding short-term training and learning pathways for critical roles. The goal is to reduce “time-to-hire” and increase retention in the first three months, the most sensitive period for abandonment and turnover.
How to Measure if the Gap Is Starting to Close
The Acaps Trade Show 2025 continues until 9/18 with panels and workshops on professional training, productivity, and technology applied to retail. It is a useful thermometer to monitor commitments and sector goals in the short term.
Indicators to observe: evolution of the number of filled vacancies by the end of the year, adherence of networks to Acredita no Primeiro Passo, and turnover rates in operational roles. Gains here signal real relief for stores and consumers.
If efforts do not accelerate, the trend is to see more automation in repetitive tasks and reconfiguration of services, which does not solve everything and may exclude profiles that could work with adequate training.
We Want to Hear You: Should retail prioritize higher wages, more flexible shifts, and paid training, or invest more in automation to reduce reliance on labor? Leave your comment and explain which path you believe is the most efficient to fill the 6,000 vacancies and keep prices under control.
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