By Brazil Stock Guide – Brazil’s banking sector eliminated 8,910 jobs in 2025, even as the broader economy added about 1.28 million formal positions, according to the bank workers’ union, Sindicato dos Bancários de São Paulo, citing its Banking Employment Survey compiled by Dieese using official labor data.
The union representing bank employees says the job losses were driven mainly by large private lenders such as Itaú Unibanco, Bradesco and Santander Brasil, which accounted for most of the net cuts during the year. The decline would have been deeper, the union said, if not for Caixa Econômica Federal, a state-owned bank, posted a net increase of 1,185 jobs in 2025.
According to the bank workers’ union, dismissals were concentrated in traditional, branch-based roles. Positions linked to physical bank branches accounted for 9,277 job losses, reflecting accelerated digitalization and the continued shutdown of service units. Since 2020, roughly 26,000 banking jobs have been eliminated nationwide, underscoring what the union describes as a structural downsizing of the sector’s workforce.
The impact was most severe in São Paulo state, where 3,580 banking jobs were cut over the year, including 2,563 in the city of São Paulo alone. The union noted that layoffs intensified in the second half of the year, amid internal restructuring and cost-cutting programs at major institutions.
While information technology was the only segment to post net hiring—adding 845 positions in 2025—the union argues that these gains have been insufficient to offset losses in traditional banking functions. In the union’s view, technology hiring has failed to absorb displaced workers from branch operations.
The bank workers’ union says the 2025 data highlight a growing disconnect between Brazil’s recovering labor market and the strategy pursued by banks, which continues to prioritize headcount reductions, branch closures and the replacement of in-person services with digital platforms despite broader job creation across the economy.