2026 will have nine long holidays, a World Cup and elections; see the full calendar | Brazil

In addition to the obligatory days, next year there will also be optional points with the possibility of modifying the days off, such as Carnival, Corpus Christi and Christmas and New Year. All this is in addition to the elections of the president and governors and the World Cup, which are expected to affect operations, strategic decisions, business generation and business planning, experts warn.

Some sectors of the economy suffer more, especially during months when work days are sharply reduced, such as February and December, while others tend to benefit from additional times of leisure and consumption, such as retail, hotels, bars and restaurants.

The general director of Michael Page in Brazil, Ricardo Basaglia, emphasizes that the problem is not the number of vacations, but the “fragmentation of the productive agenda” resulting from all the events of 2026. “We live in an environment of intermittent attention, with irregular schedules, whether due to events like the World Cup, or due to electoral cycles, which generate political noise and cause the postponement of important decisions,” he assesses.

We expect a less continuous pace of work, with more cognitive breaks. In an election year, he says, the biggest risk for businesses is not unproductivity, but the loss of collective focus and pace of decision-making.

According to Fernanda Asia, human resources director of Fesa Group, a Brazilian human resources management company, the main effect of years with many long vacations is to reorganize goals, agreements with clients and continue operations with fewer working days.

The optional point, although used as leave in the public service, falls under collective agreements in the private sector.

Segments such as manufacturing, logistics and continuous operations find it more difficult to manage interruptions. “In these sectors, the challenge is not to hire more, but to retain employees and maintain the pace of production. Production cannot simply stop,” explains Asia. And communications require speed, particularly in one-off optional situations, when it is up to the company or department to adopt the day off or not.

The executive adds that certain sectors have the advantage of generating income in years when there are many vacations, such as tourism, hotels, bars and restaurants, especially when combined with major sporting events.

“Even without the World Cup, Brazil has a strong sports-related culture. These segments typically ramp up temporary hires to meet peak demand, regardless of specific matches,” he says.

To business leaders, Asia and Basaglia remind business leaders that they will need to be even closer to the operation in 2026 so as not to miss agreements and relax prices. “It is not possible to charge the same level of delivery from one month at 22 working days to another at 18.17. This must be clear from the planning phase,” believes the human resources director of Fesa.

Key strategies include employee rosters and rotations, and breaking down big goals into smaller deliveries, helping maintain productivity even with frequent interruptions.

However, a year of vacation should not be a year of reduced productivity, says Caroline Sciarotta Gonçalves, head of human resources and culture at Briganti Advogados. The office serves foreign clients and must think about its own calendar which cannot be based solely on Brazilian holidays.

“In legal matters, deadlines never stop, requests are not always predictable and clients continue to have high expectations, regardless of the calendar. That’s why we start the year by looking at the calendar of national, state and municipal holidays, cross-referencing it with legal deadlines, business seasonality and historically more critical periods,” he explains.

The human resources specialist emphasizes that sectors must prepare for sudden changes in reality, because in addition to the operational impact, a year with many holidays can significantly affect business generation, explains Sciarotta. “Depending on the sector in which clients operate, the economic situation and the companies’ own planning, strategic decisions end up being postponed until recessionary periods approach.”

Basaglia adds that, therefore, more mature companies are already working with three or four different scenarios for a year like 2026 so as not to be surprised, in addition to extended breaks.

Regarding the annual revenues of companies, experts point out that there may be changes, different labor costs and lower margins, but these are cyclical years that must be included in the financial calendar of companies so that possible losses can be compensated.

Long holidays are not a rule of reduced profitability or losses, assures Asia, but it is common for some companies to adopt a more cautious attitude at the start of the year, observing the market reaction to the first long holidays – especially in a context which includes the end of the first half and the start of the second marked by the elections.