Unemployment rate falls to 6.9% in June

The unemployment rate was 6.9% in June, 0.1 percentage points lower than in May and 0.6 lower than in June last year, Statistics Portugal (INE) reported on Thursday.

The labour underutilisation rate, meanwhile, stood at 12.7%, down 0.1 percentage points on May, 0.2 points on March and 3.0 points compared to June last year.

In May, the unemployment rate was 7.0%, the same as that of the previous month, up by 0.1 percentage point from three months earlier and 1.0 point from a year earlier.

In that month, the labour underutilisation rate stood at 12.8%, down by 0.1 percentage points from the previous month, 1.0 points from three months earlier and 2.0 points from May 2020.

INE estimates that in May 2021, the active population totalled 5,138,600 people, up 1.4% (69,000) on the previous month, 2.3% (114,600) compared with three months earlier (February 2021) and 5.6% (274,500) compared with a year earlier.

The activity rate, estimated at 66.9%, also behaved in the same way, increasing in relation to the three comparison periods: 0.9, 1.4 and 3.5 percentage points, respectively.

For June, the estimate of the active population stood at 5,149,700 people, which corresponds to an increase of 0.2% (11,100) in relation to the previous month, 2.2% (108,900) in relation to three months earlier (March) and 3.8% (190,500) when compared with the same month.

The activity rate showed an identical trend, settling at 67.1% in June, which shows an increase of 0.2 percentage points when compared to May, 1.4 compared to March and 2.4 compared to June 2020.

In May, the employed population amounted to 4,777,000 persons, up 1.3% (61,400) from the previous month, 2.1% (99,100,000) from three months earlier and 4.5% (203,700) from the same period of the previous year.

The employment rate, estimated at 62.2%, was 0.8 percentage points higher than in the previous month, 1.3 percentage points higher than three months earlier and 2.6 percentage points higher than a year earlier.

In June, the employed population, which corresponded to 4,793,600 people, increased by 0.3% (16,600) in relation to the previous month, 1.9% (87,200) in relation to three months earlier and 4.5% (206,800) in relation to one year earlier.

In that month, the employment rate stood at 62.4%, up 0.2 percentage points from the previous month, 1.1 from March and 2.6 from June 2020.

Compared with April 2021, the youth unemployment rate (25.6%) increased by 0.9 percentage points in May, and the adult unemployment rate (5.7%) decreased by 0.1 percentage points.

In June, the youth unemployment rate (27.7%) increased by 2.1 percentage points from the previous month, while the adult unemployment rate (5.4%) decreased by 0.3 percentage points.