Portugal: EU’s second largest homologous decrease in unemployment

  • ECO News
  • 2 May 2017

The Euro Area unemployment rate decreased to 9.5% in March. In Portugal, there was a decrease to 9.8%, comparable to the 12% from one year ago.

Portugal had the second largest homologous decrease in the unemployment rate (2.2 points) in March, a rate which decreased both in the Euro Area and in all 28 Member States of the European Union, discloses Eurostat.

According to the official EU statistics office, the unemployment rate, in March, was 9.5% in the Euro Area, stable when compared to the previous month, but below the 10.2% of the homologous period. In the EU, the indicator stabilized at 8%, below the 8.1% from February and the 8.7% in March 2016.

When making an homologous comparison, the unemployment rate lowered in 23 Member-States, continued stable in France and Austria, and increased in Denmark (from 6% to 6.2%), in Italy (from 11.5% to 11.7%) and in Lithuania (8% to 8.1%).

The most significant decreases happened in Croatia (from 14% to 11.3%), in Portugal (from 12% to 9.8%), in Spain (from 20.3% to 18.2%) and in Ireland (from 8.3% to 6.4%).

As for youth unemployment, in March, there was a decrease to 19.4% in the Euro Area and 17.2% in the EU, in comparison to, respectively, 21.3% and 19.1% in the homologous period.

In Portugal, the rate of young people under the age of 25 who are unemployed was, in March, 9.8%, below the homologous 12% and also below the 9.9% rate in February.