Portugal: Unemployment falls to 9.8% in March, lowest since 2009

Lisbon, May 30 (Lusa) – The unemployment rate in Portugal stood at 9.8% in March, down 0.1 percentage points from February, the lowest rate since February 2009 (9.7%), the country’s National Statistics Institute (INE) said on Tuesday.

According to the monthly employment and unemployment statistics released by INE, this unemployment rate is the same as projected a month ago and 0.3 percentage points less than three months before.

The unemployed population in March was estimated at 503,6000 people, or a drop of 0.9% compared to February (4,700 fewer people), while the employed population was estimated at 4,649,500 people, a rise of 0.4% (18,100 people) compared to the previous month and 1.0% (44,100) compared to three months earlier (December 2016). INE noted that the latter figure was higher, compared to the provisional one published a month ago, by another 0.1% (3,400 people).

In April, the provisional estimate of the employed population was 4.646 million people, having decreased by 0.1% (3,300) compared to the previous month (March 2017) and increased by 0.8% (37,400) compared to three months earlier (January 2017).

In April 2017, there was a monthly decrease in the employed adult population – 25 to 74 years old – (0.1% or 4,800) and women (0.2% or 4,300). There was an increase in the employed population of young people – 15 to 24 years old – (0.6% or 1,700) and men (1,000 or almost unchanged).

The employment rate stood at 59.6%, unchanged from the previous month and increased 0.5 percentage points from three months earlier.

The employment rate for men (63.8%) exceeded that of women (55.8%) by 8.0 percentage points and compared to February the former increased by 0.1 percentage points, while the latter fell by 0.1 percentage points.