Unemployment in Portugal was recorded as 12.3% in February this year, down from 13.5% the previous February.
This was higher than the eurozone average of 10.3%.
One of the largest falls was the rate in Spain which dropped from 23% to 20.4% over the year to February this year.
Despite the drops, Portugal remains in fourth place for the greatest jobless rate in the euro area and Spain in the second.
This the improvement, Portugal had 622,000 souls without jobs and nearly 4.5 million in Spain in the same plight.
The reduction is no doubt due in part to the number of people who have left Portugal and Spain hoping to find work elsewhere. Interestingly, unemployment has fallen in Germany (down to 4.3%) and the UK (down to 5%) and remained stable in France (10.2%) and Belgium (8.6%).
Young Portuguese under the age of 25 remain with uncertain futures as the unemployment level for them dropped from 33% to 30% against an EU average of 21.6%. This left 108,000 without jobs.
