RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Unemployment rates in Brazil fell for the fifth consecutive month to close the June - August period at 12.1 percent, said the state-owned Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) on Friday.

The institute's results mean 12.7 million people of employment age are still without work.

According to the institute, between June and August, unemployment fell 0.6 percent against the 12.7 percent figure of the previous three months.

In comparison to the same period last year, the unemployment rate is down 0.5 percent, said the IBGE.

The reduction was accompanied by improved job creation figures for the month.

Last week, the government announced the highest job creation figures for August in five years after 110,431 formal positions were generated.

So far this year, 568,500 new positions have been created.

The institute reported that the number of people that gave up looking for work hit a record high of 4.8 million people and remains stable.

Underemployment figures - meaning those in part-time or casual work - also remained stable between June and August at 24.4 percent, representing some 27.5 million people.

High unemployment is one of the main obstacles facing the Brazilian economy as it tries to build solid growth following the worst recession in the country's history during 2015 and 2016.

In 2017 the economy showed signs of slowly improving with a figure of 1 percent growth recorded. However, 2018's initial 3 percent growth forecast was consecutively reduced by the financial market and government to less than 1.5 percent.