The unemployment rate in the eurozone in November stood at 11.5%, stable compared with October but down from 11.9% in November 2013.
For Portugal, November’s rate of 13.9% was a shade higher than the 13.6% in October but a healthy drop from 15.4% in November 2013.
Nevertheless, there were 714,000 people registered as unemployed. While that was down from 804,000 a year ago, the number of people without work has been gradually escalating from August through September and October.
Nov 13 |
Aug 14 |
Sept 14 |
Oct 14 |
Nov 14 |
804,000 |
693,000 |
684,000 |
696,000 |
714,000 |
15.4% |
13.5% |
13.3% |
13.6% |
13.9% |
Portuguese youth are still suffering exceedingly low job prospects. The unemployment rate was 34.5% in November compared to 35.6% a year earlier.
Nov 13 |
Aug 14 |
Sept 14 |
Oct 14 |
Nov 14 |
136,000 |
128,000 |
125,000 |
124,000 |
128,000 |
35.6% |
33.2% |
33% |
33.3% |
34.5% |
Across the eurozone, 18,394,000 people struggled without work.
The highest unemployment rates are in Greece (25.7%) and Spain (23.9%). Both Greece and Spain reported good drops from the year before, namely from 28% and from 25.8% respectively.
Cyprus reported the third highest rate, having pushed Portugal into fourth place.
Lowest unemployment rates remain in Austria and Germany, both at 5%.