Portugal’s headline unemployment rate has dropped to 8.8% at the end of the second quarter of 2017
It is the lowest figure since 2009 and Minister, Vieira da Silva, said he is convinced that the rate will continue to fall.
The National Statistical Institute says there are 461,400 people officially unemployed and Minister of Labour and Social Solidarity, Vieira da Silva, believes that unemployment will continue to fall until the end of the year, but refuses to put down a number.
The unemployment rate for young people (aged 15-24) was 22.7%, down 2.4% from the previous quarter and 4.2% less than in the same quarter of 2016.
The unemployment rates in the Alentejo (8.7%), Algarve (7.6%) and Centre (7%) were below the national average.
Those are the official figures which can be doubled to get the real picture with even the INE concluding that there are more than 900,000 unemployed, not 461,000, i.e. almost double the official rate.
