Unemployed registered in employment centers decrease 11.6%
For 5 months, the number of people registered in employment centers has been below the psychological barrier of 500 thousand people, states the Institute of Employment and Vocational Training (IEFP).
For the fifth consecutive month, in November there were less than 500 thousand people looking for jobs registered in employment centers. The data is brought forward this Wednesday by the Institute of Employment and Vocational Training (IEFP – Instituto do Emprego e Formação Profissional), and show a homologous decrease of 11.6%.
In November, there were 486,434 people registered as unemployed in employment centers. This amount was reduced by 64 thousand people compared to the same month of 2015 and 4,155 less people than in October of 2016. According to data disclosed by the Portuguese Social Security, there is also a decrease in the number of unemployment benefits.
Unemployed people registered in the IEFP
As it is stated in the IEFP’s monthly bulletin, the data reveal a decrease in the number of people registered, whether for those who have been looking for a job for less than a year (around 12.6%), and for those who have been unemployed for a longer period of time (there was a 10.5% decrease of people looking for a job for a year or more).
When compared to November 2015, the decrease in the number of registered people was seen in all levels of educational attainment. However, the IEFP stresses the decrease was larger in the unemployment group of primary educated people. In this segment, the reduction was of 14%; as for unemployed people with a complete secondary education, the decrease was 9.3%. The reduction of unemployment for people with a higher education was 10.9%.
Regarding the evolution in November, employment centers registered 58,242 new unemployed people. This amount was, however, 10% lower than what was seen in November 2015.
The data disclosed by the Institute this Wednesday suggest the labor market continues to improve, along with the international institutions and the Portuguese government’s expectations. However, they must be interpreted with caution, since these are administrative data and not a sample representative of the unemployed population as a whole – it is not mandatory to be registered in an employment center.
The numbers relevant to the economic policy are gathered by the Portuguese National Statistical Institute (INE), based on surveys made to the Portuguese population. According to the most recent data from INE, the unemployment rate in the third quarter of 2016 was 10.5%. Regarding months, the most recent final value is from September and points to a 10.9% rate, unchanged when compared to August, and it corresponds to 558.2 thousand unemployed people.
