Unemployment rate decreased to 6.6% in 2021
The unemployment rate fell to 6.6% in 2021, a decrease of 0.4 percentage points year-on-year.
Portugal’s unemployment rate fell to 6.6% in 2021, INE confirmed on Wednesday. This is a decrease of 0.4 percentage points year-on-year and a similar figure to 2019, a sign that the labour market continues to recover from the pandemic shock.
“[In 2021] the unemployment rate was 6.6% and the labour underutilisation rate was 12.5%, both having decreased compared to 2020 (0.4 p.p. [percentage points] and 1.6 p.p., respectively),” said the INE, which published employment data for the fourth quarter and the whole of 2021.
For young people (aged 16-24), the unemployment rate stood at 23.4%, up 0.9 percentage points from the previous year.
Last year, the average annual employed population was 4,812,300 people, having increased 2.7% (128,600) compared to 2020.
The unemployed population, meanwhile, estimated at 338,800 people, decreased by 3.4% (12,000) from the previous year, but the proportion of long-term unemployed was estimated at 43.4%, up 10.1 percentage points from 2020.
