Unemployment rate climbs to 6.1% in September

  • Lusa
  • 2 November 2022

According to INE, "the unemployment rate rose to 6.1%", the highest since December 2021 and higher by 0.1 percentage points than the 6.0%."

The unemployment rate in Portugal rose to 6.1% in September, up from 6.0% in August but below the 6.3% of September 2021, according to provisional data released today by Statistics Portugal (INE).

According to INE’s Monthly Employment and Unemployment Estimates, in September, “the unemployment rate rose to 6.1%”, the highest since December 2021 and higher by 0.1 percentage points than the 6.0% at which it had stabilised between May and August.

In September 2022, INE estimates that the active population (5,193,500) decreased by 0.1% (4,200 people) compared to August and increased by 0.6% compared to September 2021. In August, the active population reached its highest level since February 1998 (5,197,700 people).

According to INE, the fall in the active population “resulted from the decrease in the employed population (9,300; 0.2%), which exceeded the increase in the unemployed population (5,100; 1.6%)”.

The rise of 3,400 people (0.1%) in the inactive population, to 2,464,400, “was explained by the increase in the number of other inactive people, those who are neither available nor looking for work (9,900; 0.4%)”. In August, the inactive population recorded its lowest figure since February 1998 (2,461,000 people).

The estimated employment rate in September was 63.7%, down from 63.8% in August, but remaining close to its highest value (63.9%), reached in February 2022, while the labour underutilisation rate is estimated to have been 11.4%, the same as in the previous month, but lower than in the same month of the previous year by 0.5 percentage points.

In September, the employed population (4,874,700) decreased by 0.2% compared with the previous month and increased by 0.8% compared with the same month in 2021, while the unemployed population (318,800) increased compared with the previous month (1.6%) and decreased 2.6% compared with September 2021.