Recruiters say they are yet to see significant pick-up of large-scale migration to talent-short Brazil from depressed markets such as Spain, where job opportunities are scarce. Robert Spuri, managing director for Latin America at talent and recruitment firm Futurestep, says: “Nowadays you have a lot of gaps in Brazil, but you also have problems in Spain, for example, or the US – Brazilian companies are starting to source people in Europe and the US.” But Spuri, speaking to Recruiter for the Global Spotlight piece coming up in next week’s June edition of the magazine, says the trend is still not that strong, with Brazil being a “very closed market, [but] now we are opening a little bit”.

Raquel Cunha, a senior talent acquisition advisor for computing giant Dell in Brazil, agrees that one of the major challenges for the country is its “strict labour legislation… [which] is very different from other countries”. “For a hiring manager that has never worked with the Brazilian market we need to educate him or her as regards what we can and what we cannot do,” she continues, “on employee hiring process and further people management.” Alongside strict legislation, there are also some areas where talent shortages are not so keenly felt, meaning overseas workers will not find Brazil such an open market. Eva Piqué, a senior consultant recruiting across Latin American life science industry at recruiter Antal International, says within her market in Brazil, “there’s plenty of talent… we don’t need to bring people from abroad”. And she goes on to say that Brazilian firms “don’t want Spaniards, they want local people”. Spuri lists some of the key areas where overseas workers are beginning to be hired into Brazil: 4G telecommunications, Oil & gas Business development, Industry Insurance and reinsurance (from the UK)