November jobless rate 6.4%, highest since July 2021

Portugal’s unemployment rate rose to 6.4% in November, its highest level since July 2021 and up from 6.0% in October and 6.2% in November of 2021, according to provisional data released on Friday by the National Statistics Institute (INE).

“The unemployed population (331.6 thousand) increased from the three periods under comparison (previous month, three months before and same month of previous year): 5.9%, 6.7% and 3.2%, respectively,” reads the English version of the INE’s Monthly Employment and Unemployment Estimates. “The unemployment rate stood at 6.4%, also up from October and August 2022 (0.4 pp from both months) and from November 2021 (0.2 pp).”

In November 2022, INE estimates that the active population (5,198,400) decreased, compared to the previous month, by 1,800 people (a relative variation of almost zero) and that it increased by 0.5% compared to November 2021.

Final data for November is expected to be released in about a month’s time, along with the provisional figures for December; Friday’s release contained the final data for October.

“The unemployed population (313.2 thousand) decreased by 0.6% from September 2022 and by 4.1% from October 2021, having increased by 3.1% from July 2022,” reads the release. “The unemployment rate stood at 6.0%, down 0.1 percentage points (pp) from the previous month, up 0.1 pp from three months before and down 0.3 pp from a year earlier.”