Employment and Unemployment Estimates, March 2017, INE

The February 2017 unemployment rate was 9.9%

The February 2017 unemployment rate stood at 9.9%, down by 0.2 percentage points (p.p.) from the previous month’s level and by 0.6 p.p. from three months before. That value corresponds to a downwards revision of 0.1 p.p. from the provisional estimate released one month ago (10.0%). That estimate is also the lowest observed since February 2009 (9.7%).

The February unemployed population was estimated at 508.3 thousand people, having decreased by 1.9% from the previous month’s level (9.9 thousand fewer people), while the employed population was estimated at 4,630.2 thousand people, having increased by 0.5% (22.6 thousand more people) from the previous month’s level.

The provisional unemployment rate estimate for March 2017 was 9.8%. For this month, the provisional estimate for the unemployed population was 504.0 thousand people and for the employed population it was 4,646.1 thousand people.

1. Employed population and employment rate

In February 2017, the employed population was estimated at 4,630.2 thousand people, having increased by 0.5% (22.6 thousand) from the previous month (January 2017) and by 1.0% (43.7 thousand) from three months before (November 2016). That value was revised upwards, from the provisional one released a month ago, by 0.4% (19.7 thousand).

In March 2017, the provisional estimate for the employed population was 4,646.1 thousand people, having increased by 0.3% (15.9 thousand) from the previous month (February 2017) and increased by 0.9% (41.6 thousand) from three months before (December 2016).

Still in March 2017, and comparing to the previous month, the employed population increased for all groups under analysis: adults (25 to 74 years old) (0.3%; 11.9 thousand); women (0.5%; 11.1 thousand); men (0.2%; 4.8 thousand); and young people (15 to 24 years old) (1.5%; 4.0 thousand).

The employment rate stood at 59.6%, having increased by 0.2 percentage points (p.p.) from the previous month’s level and by 0.5 p.p. from three months before.

The employment rate of men (63.7%) exceeded that of women (55.8%) by 7.9 p.p.. Both rates increased when compared to the previous month’s value, the former by 0.1 p.p. and the latter by 0.2 p.p.. The employment rate of adults was 65.2%, up 0.2 p.p. from the previous month’s level. The employment rate of young people was 25.6% and increased by 0.3 p.p. from February 2017.