RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- Brazil ended 2018 with an average unemployment rate of 12.3 percent, or 12.8 million jobless people, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) said Thursday.

The unemployment rate was 0.4 percent lower than in 2017 when it hit 12.7 percent, according to the IBGE report.

The growth of unemployment stopped in 2018, after having continually increased since 2015 as a result of the economic crisis the South American country had suffered.

During the final quarter of 2018, unemployment fell to 11.6 percent, or 12.2 million people were unemployed.

According to IBGE, the decline in last year's unemployment was spurred by the growth of informal jobs and self-employment.

The number of workers without a formal contract grew 3.8 percent (427,000 people) in the fourth quarter last year, compared with the same period the year before.

In just one year, the number of self-employed workers increased by 2.8 percent, or 650,000 people. Meanwhile, the number of workers with formal contracts reached 32.9 million people.