Portugal has the eighth highest unemployment rate in the EU
In September and in year-on-year terms, the unemployment rate retreated in both the Euro Zone and the EU. In Portugal, unemployment stabilized.
Portugal is among the only three European countries where the unemployment rate recorded in September this year was at the same level as a year ago. According to data released this Thursday by Eurostat, in the tenth month of 2019, only seven countries in the EU bloc recorded higher unemployment than Portugal, with the European Union average falling 0.4 percentage points (p.p.) to 6.3% compared to September 2018 and the Euro Zone average falling 0.5 p.p. to 7.5%, year on year.
“The Eurozone unemployment rate was 7.5% in September 2019, remaining stable compared to August 2019 and falling back from 8% in September 2018. This is the lowest rate recorded in the Euro Zone since July 2008. The unemployment rate in the European Union was 6.3% in September 2019, stable compared to August 2019, and falling back from 6.7% in September 2018. This remains the lowest rate recorded in the EU since the start of the series in January 2000,” explains the Community statistics office in the note released this morning.
In September, the Czech Republic (2.1%) and Germany (3.1%) recorded the lowest unemployment rates. Conversely, the highest unemployment rates were recorded in Greece (16.9%) and Spain (14.2%).
The Portuguese unemployment rate was 6.6%, 0.2 p.p. higher than in August and stable in relation to the same period last year. Portugal was among the only three European countries – along with Belgium and Romania – that maintained the unemployment rate at the same level as that recorded in September 2018, when most member states (22 countries) recorded falls in unemployment and only three saw the opposite trend.
“Compared to the same period of the previous year, the unemployment rate fell in 22 Member States, remained stable in Belgium, Portugal and Romania and increased in Lithuania (from 6.3% to 6.5%), Denmark (from 5% to 5.3%) and Sweden (from 6.3% to 7.3%). They recorded the sharpest falls in Greece (from 19.1% to 16.9%), Cyprus (from 8% to 6.6%) and Estonia (from 5.3% to 3.9%)”, explains Eurostat.
