Abstract
This article draws on a large occupational database of 2514 occupations required for 581 industries in 558 microregions and five macroregions in Brazil and shows that occupational relatedness is associated with regional occupational branching (entry of related and exit of unrelated occupations) in a developing country marked by enormous regional disparities. Three types of occupational relatedness were examined: local synergy-, complementarity- and similarity-relatedness densities. Local synergy- and complementarity-relatedness densities were most closely associated with regional branching, and were more relevant to preventing the decline of specializations than promoting the emergence of new ones. All types of relatedness were more closely associated with preventing the disappearance of occupations from the most backward regions.