Temporary jobs on the rise in Portugal

  • ECO News
  • 13 August 2018

Poland and Spain are the EU countries in which the share of temporary employees is higher, accordingly to Eurostat. Portugal comes right after with 22% of the population employed in part-time jobs.

Over the last 15 years, it has progressively become harder to find a permanent job. According to the data released by Eurostat this Monday, the percentage of temporary workers in the EU went up from 11,2% to 13,4% in 2017.

In Poland and Spain, the percentage of temporary work was 26%, while in Portugal the share was 21,5%, which represented an increase of 0,9 percentage points in comparison to 2002. 

The highest shares were observed in Poland and Spain (26%), Portugal (22%) and Croatia (20%), while the lowest shares were found in Romania (1%), Lithuania (2%), Estonia and Latvia (both with 3%).

People working part-time at EU level increased from 15% in 2002 to 19% in 2017, whereas part-time jobs were much more common among women (31%) than men (8%) in the EU in 2017.

Total share of part-time workers varied significantly in the EU member states, with the highest shares being observed in the Netherlands (47%), Austria (28%), Germany (27%), Belgium and the UK (both 24%). The lowest proportions were observed in Bulgaria (2%), Hungary (4%), and Croatia (5%).

In Portugal, the part-time proportion was below the EU average (8,6%). In 2012, part-time workers represented 11% — the maximum registered value since 2002 — and there has been a tendency for the share of part-time work to reduce, although we are still above the share registered in 2012 (8,4%).

In July, the International Monetary Fund released a report in which Portugal showed up as one of the EU countries in which youth unemployment has decreased the most since the financial crisis. However, they also outlined that young people were offered mostly part-time job opportunities, which has simultaneously hampered the improvement of this indicator.