Q2 employment data show ‘vitality’ of economy
"The employed population in Portugal in this period is an all-time high and has even surpassed the figures for the second quarter of 2019," Siza Vieira pointed out.
The Minister of Economy, Pedro Siza Vieira considers that the employment figures released by Statistics Portugal (INE) for the second quarter of this year show a capacity for job creation, which is “a sign of vitality of the economy.”
In a statement sent to the media, Siza Vieira said that “the capacity to create jobs is a sign of vitality of the economy,” adding that the “new companies, companies that grow or companies that resume their activity are those that hire people, because they know they will have clients that may need their services.
“The employed population in Portugal in this period is an all-time high and has even surpassed the figures for the second quarter of 2019,” he pointed out, reporting that, “right now, there are 4.810 million people working in Portugal. That’s 128,000 more people than in the previous quarter,” he stressed, adding that he considers these to be “impressive” figures.
According to the minister, “the services sector, the most affected by the pandemic has created 100,000 more jobs alone, 25,000 of which are in the accommodation, catering and similar sectors.
According to INE today, the employed population (4.810 million people) increased by 2.8% (128.900) in the second quarter of 2021 compared to the previous quarter, 4.5% (208,900) year-on-year and 0.8% (36,300) compared to the 2nd quarter of 2019 (two years earlier).
Also according to the employment statistics for the second quarter, “the unemployment rate was estimated at 6.7%, which is 0.4 percentage points (p.p.) lower than in the previous quarter and 1.0 p.p. higher than in the same quarter of 2020 and 0.3 p.p. higher than in the 2nd quarter of 2019”.
In the second quarter of this year “the unemployment rate was higher than the national average in four regions of the country.”
Thus, INE highlighted the unemployment rate in the Algarve (10.2%), Madeira (8.4%), the Alentejo (7.9%) and the Azores (6.8%), while in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area it was 6.7%, equal to the national figure, and lower in the remaining two regions – North (6.3%) and Centre (6.2%).
The INE also noted that the unemployed population, “estimated at 345,700 people, fell 4.0% (14,400) in relation to the previous quarter.”
