Portugal’s employment rose 1.9% in Q4 2020, highest in EU
The country had the largest rise in employment quarter-on-quarter (1.9%) in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Portugal had the largest rise in employment quarter-on-quarter (1.9%) in the fourth quarter of 2020, with the number of people employed advancing 0.3% in the eurozone and 0.4% in the European Union (EU), Eurostat released on Tuesday.
In the cumulative 2020, the employment rate fell by 1.6% in the eurozone and 1.5% in the EU, after having grown by 1.2% and 1.0%, respectively, in 2019.
According to the European statistics office, compared to the same quarter of the previous year, employment fell by 1.9% in the eurozone and 1.6% in the EU between October and December 2020, slowing down from falls of 2.1% and 2.0%, respectively, in the third quarter of 2020.
Year-on-year, the employment rate decreased the most in Spain (-4.2%), Estonia (-4.0%) and Latvia (-3.4%) and advanced 1.7% in Luxembourg and 0.8% in Poland.
In Portugal, the employment rate retreated by 0.6% between October and December compared to the same period in 2019.
In the quarter-on-quarter comparison, employment increased by 0.3% in the eurozone and 0.4% in the EU in the fourth quarter of 2020, after having risen by 1.0% and 0.9% respectively between July and September.
In the fourth quarter of 2020, Portugal, Estonia (1.9% each) and Spain (1.2%) recorded the strongest employment rate growth compared with the previous period.
The largest decreases were observed in the Czech Republic, Croatia, Latvia and Malta (-0.5% each).
