Unemployment falls 3.6% from March to April, 25.8% YoY

The number of unemployed registered at job centres n Portugal fell 3.6% in April compared to March and decreased 25.8% compared to April last year, to 314,435, the IEFP said on Monday.

According to data released by the Institute of Employment and Vocational Training (IEFP), there were 11,816 fewer unemployed people registered in April than in the previous month and 109,453 fewer than in April 2021.

Compared to April 2019, pre-pandemic, the number of unemployed fell by 2.1% (-6,805 people).

In April, 37,647 unemployed people registered with employment services across the country, 398 more (+1.1%) than in the same month of 2021, but 4,222 fewer (-10.1%) than in March.

According to the IEFP, “the groups of individuals seeking new employment (-105,526), those aged 25 or over (-92,718), and those who have been registered for less than a year (-86,051) contributed most to the reduction in unemployment, compared to the same month in 2021, in absolute terms.

As for youth unemployment (people under 25), it registered a monthly decrease of 6.4% in April compared to March, to 32,433 (-2,215 young people), and a decrease of 34% (-16,735 young people) compared to the same period last year. In April 2019, 32,798 young people were enrolled.

At the regional level, in April, the registered unemployment in the country, in year-on-year terms, decreased in all regions, with the highlight being the Algarve (-53.7%) and the autonomous region of Madeira (-35.2%).

Also concerning the previous month, all the regions showed a decline in unemployment, with the largest variation occurring in the Algarve (-19.7%).

In sectoral terms, year-on-year decreases were recorded in all major sectors of activity, with the most significant variations recorded, in descending order, in ‘hotels, restaurants and similar accommodation’ (-47.6%: -10.3% compared with March), ‘leather and leather products industry’ (-38.4%), ‘clothing industry’ (-32.2%) and ‘food, beverages and tobacco industry’ (-29.7%).

The number of long-term unemployed (a category covering people registered for over a year at the job centre) totalled 154,493 (49.1%) in April, which translates as a decrease of 3.7% compared to March (-5,865 people), and is now 13.2% below the level recorded in April 2021 (-23,402 people) and 9.1% below the same month of 2019 (-12,944 people).

Those registered less than a year ago totalled 159,942, with a year-on-year and year-on-year decline of 3.6% and 35.0%, respectively.

The most representative occupational groups of the unemployed registered in Mainland Portugal were, in April, ‘unskilled workers’ (25.9%), ‘workers in personal services, security protection and sales workers’ (20.8%), ‘administrative staff’ (11.8%) and ‘specialists in intellectual and scientific activities’ (10.6%).

Concerning the same month in 2021, and excluding groups with little representativeness in the registered unemployment, the IEFP indicates that “all groups showed decreases”, with emphasis on ‘workers in personal services, security protection and salesmen’ (-34.5%), ‘plant and machine operators and assembly workers’ (-27.9%) and ‘skilled workers in industry, construction and craftsmen’ (-26.0%).

As for job offers received throughout April, they totalled 11,855 throughout the country, which is 1,051 less than the number received in the same month (-8.1%) and 2,828 less than in the previous month (-19.3%).

The economic activities with the greatest expression in job offers (in this case, IEFP only considers data for the Mainland) were ‘real estate activities and support services’ (16.9%), ‘accommodation, restaurants and similar’ (15.8%) and ‘public administration, education, health activities and social support’ (14.5%).

Placements (Mainland data) show a higher concentration in ‘unskilled workers’ (29.0%), ‘workers in personal services, protection and security services and sales workers (26.6%) and ‘administrative staff’ (10.8%).