The analysis focuses on the duration of non-employment spells of employees in the private sector who lose their job as a result of dismissal or firm closure. The PME provides rich information on the unemployed, including on the nature of their last job. This allows one to determine whether individuals are eligible for FGTS and the number of monthly payments of SD (e.g. 0, 3, 4 or 5) by using information on whether the person had a work card (carteira de trabalho) and the number of months spent in the last job. One drawback of the data is that they do not provide information on actual take-up of either SD or FGTS.