Employment rate in Portugal above pre-pandemic level, 70% in Q3 2021

The employment rate in the third quarter of 2021 increased to 68% in the OECD and to 70% in Portugal, six-tenths more than in the previous quarter, continuing to recover from losses caused by the pandemic, it was announced on Tuesday.

In a statement released today, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said the employment rate rose to 68.4% in the euro zone in the third quarter, up seven-tenths of a percentage point from the second quarter.

In addition to Portugal, France, Australia, Greece, Hungary and New Zealand have their employment rates above pre-pandemic employment levels.

The most notable growth in the third quarter was recorded in Chile, where the rate rose 1.9 points to 59.2%; in Colombia, also with a 1.9% increase to 61.5%; and 2.7 points in Costa Rica, where it reached 58.3%, according to the OECD statement.

However, the organisation stresses that Chile, Colombia and Costa Rica are the countries furthest away from pre-pandemic employment figures in 2019.

In Canada, the employment rate increased by 1.4 points to 73.8%; and in the United States the growth was 0.8 points to 69.8%, but still 1.9 points below their pre-pandemic levels, according to the OECD data.

The countries where the rate changed the least in the third quarter were the United Kingdom, up 0.3 points to 75.4 per cent, and Japan, where the rate reached 77.9 per cent, up 0.2 points from the previous quarter.