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SAO PAULO, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Brazil's jobless rate to the lowest level in almost seven years in the three months through July, statistics agency IBGE said on Wednesday, reinforcing government expectations that a recovering labor market will drive economic growth in 2022.

The unemployment rate in Latin America's largest economy reached 9.1% in the quarter through July, IBGE said, in line with market expectations in a Reuters poll and the lowest since the three months ended in December 2015.

"We can see the upward trend in the occupancy rate holding on and a relevant drop in the job vacancy rate," IBGE's research manager Adriana Beringuy said in a report.

The number of employed people hit 98.7 million, a record for the series started in 2012, while the unemployed totaled 9.9 million, the lowest since early 2016.

Brazil's government has been saying that an improvement in the job market is expected to drive economic growth this year as the country recovers from the pandemic-related downturn.

Economy Minister Paulo Guedes said earlier this month he expects the unemployment rate to drop to 8% by the end of the year. In the three months through June, the rate had reached 9.3%. (Reporting by Gabriel Araujo; Editing by Steven Grattan)