A delighted Minister of Labour, Vieira da Silva, seized on data published by the Institute of Employment and Professional Training for the 2017 year-end which showed a significant drop in the number of unemployed that show up on the official statistics.
2017 ended with 78,800 fewer unemployed registered at employment centres compared to the end of 2016, down 16.3%.
The number of people registered as unemployed was 403,800, the lowest figure since October 2008, when the financial crisis began.
Registered unemployment declined in each month of 2107, except November when it was stable, an average of, 8,200 people a month.
The 2017 decline in unemployment was:
- Young people (-19.7%),
- Adults (-15.9%),
- Short-term unemployed (-16%),
- Long-term unemployed (-16.7%),
- People looking for the first job (-15.8%) and new employment (-16.4%).
The year-on-year decrease was across all regions of the country, with most of the new jobs being in the construction sector and for tourism-related work.
Vieira da Silva said that the news and figures are "extremely positive", as “over the last two years about a quarter of a million new jobs have been created,” and that the Portuguese economy now presented "a significant dynamism."
There always is some justifiable criticism as to how these figures are arrived at - but for 2017 one thing is clear, more people had jobs at the end of the year than at the start of it.
