Portugal suffers 4th highest unemployment in eurozone

unemployedThe 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%.