Brazil will create fewer jobs this year than previously forecast as the number of new posts in June missed analyst forecasts for the fourth straight month.

Brazil will create about 1 million jobs in 2014, down from a previous forecast of 1.4 million to 1.5 million, Labor Minister Manoel Dias told reporters today in Brasilia. Job creation will slow in the second half of the year, he said.

President Dilma Rousseff is trying to prevent eroding business and consumer confidence from further damaging Brazil’s economy as she runs for re-election in October. The central bank yesterday held the key rate unchanged for the second straight meeting as policy makers weigh above-target inflation against waning demand.

Brazil’s government registered 25,363 new formal jobs in June, less than half the number of posts created in May, the Labor Ministry said in a report distributed in Brasilia. The result was below estimates of all 12 economists surveyed by Bloomberg, whose median forecast was for 53,500.

A decline in manufacturing, construction and retail offset gains in services and agriculture, according to the report. Dias said the month-long World Cup reduced the number of shopping days in Brazil, which hosted the soccer tournament.

Brazil’s central bank on June 26 cut its 2014 economic growth estimate to 1.6 percent from 2 percent. Latin America’s largest economy expanded 0.2 percent in the first quarter, half the pace of the previous three months.

The government’s job creation number is a balance of posts created minus jobs eliminated. Registered jobs, so-called formal work, assure employees a range of benefits such as unemployment insurance, bonuses and retirement payments by the government.