Brazil's recession woes continue with the unemployment rate climbing to 7.6 percent in January. Statistics agency Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics revealed that the numbers rose from 6.9 percent in December, marking the highest unemployment rate for the month of January in seven years since 2009.

The latest IBGE figures revealed that about 1.9 million people in the six largest metropolitan areas were jobless, increasing by 146,000 than the month before and 500,000 more than the same period a year ago.

The most affected group of workers were those between the ages of 18 and 24, which marked a jump in unemployment by more than two percentage points higher than in December 2015. Meanwhile, among the most affected sectors were education, health and public administration, which all contracted 2.8 percent.

Brazil, one of Latin America's biggest powers, is in deep recession and the economy lost about 1.5 million jobs in 2015. In proportion to its population, the current unemployment crisis is comparable to the financial crisis of the United States in 2008 and 2009.

Some of the factors that contributed to the recession after years of development are high prices and strong Chinese demand for commodity exports. The turbulent political climate with the Congress and the conflict of President Dilma Rousseff have also been significant factors that are part of the country's downward spiral.

The current recession is reportedly the country's longest in over a century with far-reaching developments from the climbing unemployment rate, rising borrowing costs to double-digit inflation. The consumer prices will continue to swell this year according to analysts and inflation is projected to end the year at 7.6 percent.

However, the struggling citizens can count on one good report as it has been revealed that electricity prices are set to decrease beginning next month due to the government turning off some thermoelectric power plants.

Brazil will be shutting down 15 thermoelectric plants in March, in addition to the reported seven this month. Cheaper sources of power will be used. Being less dependent on thermoelectricity means that regulators can begin pulling out the surcharge on consumers and offer lower electricity bills.

"We guarantee that, by April, consumers won't have to bear that burden anymore," Energy Minister Eduardo Braga promised.

He added that this move is possible due to reduced electricity use as well as increased rainfall. This new direction will also allow the electricity industry to save about $2 billion or 8 billion reais a year.