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Through a brief historical recovery, the article seeks to describe the main trends in the world of work in Brazil. The emphasis of the article focuses on the current early transition to the service society, whose significant change can be observed in the operation of the labor market itself. Also, it considers the predominance of massive open unemployment, the expansion of the underutilization of the labor force and the generalization of precariousness in professions due to the absence of economic growth and the return of the neoliberal reforms. The result has been the increasing polarization within the world of work.Através de breve recuperação histórica busca-se descrever as principais tendências do mundo do trabalho no Brasil. A ênfase do ensaio focaliza a atual transição antecipada para a sociedade de serviços, cuja alteração significativa pode ser observada no próprio funcionamento do mercado de trabalho. Também se considera a predominância do massivo desemprego aberto, da ampliação da subutilização da força de trabalho e da generalização da precarização nas ocupações em função da ausência de crescimento econômico e do retorno das reformas neoliberais. O resultado tem sido a polarização crescente no interior do mundo do trabalho.

Located on the fringe of global capitalism, lacking an international currency and endowed with weak technology production and dissemination capacities, Brazil is developing its own very specific approach to social welfare policies. Its 1988 Constitution ushered in acknowledged progress in these policies during the past two decades, despite constraints due to the general behavior of its lackluster economy, with rising unemployment and a shrinking job pool. In parallel, the semi-stagnation of its per capita income has been paced by a steady stream of tax adjustments, hobbling more recent developments in social spending. All these efforts often achieve little more than upholding the wealth financialization cycle, mainly for the tiny portion of society holding public debt papers. An analysis of this specifically Brazilian situation leads to a better understanding of missed opportunities for cutting away many of Brazil's social shackles, as welfare policies have significant impacts on lower-income segments of the population.