Unemployment falls to 6.4% in February

The unemployment rate stood at 6.4% in February, 0.1 percentage points (p.p.) lower than in the same month of 2024, according to provisional data released by Statistics Portugal (INE) on Monday.

In February, the unemployment rate was estimated at 6.%, higher than in January (0.1 p.p.), but lower than in November (0.2 p.p.) and February 2024 (0.1 p.p.), INE said.

The labour underutilisation rate stood at 10.9%, an increase on the previous month (0.1 p.p.), but down on three months earlier (0.1 p.p.) and the same month in 2024 (0.4 p.p.).

INE also reported that in February, the unemployment rate for women (6.7%) exceeded that for men (6.2%) by 0.5 p.p., while the youth unemployment rate, estimated at 20.9%, was the highest since November 2024 (21.0%).

The statistics office pointed out that the labour force was 510 million people, the highest since February 1998.

In the same vein, the employed population (5.163 million) increased compared to the previous month (2,100, corresponding to an almost zero rate of change), three months earlier (52,900 or 1%) and the same month of the previous year (111,300 or 2.2%), reaching the highest figure since the series began in February 1998.

The unemployed population stood at 354,200, an increase on the previous month (4,800 or 1.4%) and the same month in 2024 (4,400 or 1.3%), having decreased compared to three months earlier (5,500 or 1.5%).

The inactive population remained practically unchanged compared to the previous month and three months earlier, at 2.483 million, but decreased compared to the same month a year earlier (10,500 or 0.4%).

INE also revised upwards the definitive unemployment rate for January, from 6.2%, as it had estimated at the beginning of the month, to 6.3%.

This figure was 0.1 percentage points lower than in December 2024, 0.3 percentage points lower than in October and 0.1 percentage points lower than in January 2024.

The labour underutilisation rate stood at 10.8% in January, the same as the previous month, having fallen compared to three months earlier (0.2 p.p.) and the same period the previous year (0.6 p.p.).