Portugal’s unemployment decreased in October. Rate stood at 7.5%

The country’s unemployment rate fell for the second month in a row in October, registering a monthly drop of 0.4 percentage points to 7.5%, according to provisional data revealed this Monday by the National Statistics Institute (INE).

The summer brought a rise in the country’s unemployment, in a labor market that also suffered from the pandemic. The unemployment rate jumped from 5.9% in May to 8.1% in August. September and October have already brought some correction in this upward movement. However, the rate registered last month is 1.0 points higher than a year ago.

The INE data also states that the employed population increased 0.3% in October in relation to the previous month and 1.5% in relation to the previous three months. Even so, in comparison with the same month of 2019, there is a drop of 2.1%.

In the information made available this Monday, INE revealed the definitive data for September, with corrections to the provisional data: the unemployment rate was 7.9% (instead of the 7.7% initially estimated) and the employed population increased 0.7% over the previous month (and not 0.8%).