The leather industry in Brazil registered an increase in employment in the first quarter of 2025. By Leatherbiz.

At the end of 2024, tanneries across 23 of Brazil’s 26 states employed a total of 30,982 people.

By the end of the first quarter of this year, according to figures that national industry association CICB has shared, the industry employed a total of 32,016 people in 24 states. This represents an increase of 3.3% so far this year.

Rio Grande do Sul and São Paulo registered the highest increases and the highest totals. Rio Grande do Sul’s leather sector added 429 jobs in the first quarter of 2025 to take its total to 8,397. For São Paulo, the increase was 206, with the total for the state rising to 6,367.

Other states with more than 1,000 people working in leather production were Paraná, Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso and Santa Catarina.