Lisbon, July 30, 2025 (Lusa) - The unemployment rate in Portugal fell to 6% in June, according to preliminary estimates released by Statistics Portugal (INE) on Wednesday.
According to the statistics, this marked the third consecutive month in which the unemployment rate declined.
After two months at 6.4% in February and March, the unemployment level fell to 6.3% in April, to 6.1% in May and now to 6% in June.
The rate is below the level recorded a year earlier, in June 2024, when it corresponded to 6.3% of the working population in Portugal.
The unemployed population in June fell to 335,500, down “in relation to the three comparison periods: the previous month (5,300; 1.6%) three months earlier (18,000; 5.1%) and the same month in 2024 (4,900; 1.4%)”, according to INE.
With this decline, the rate equalled the figures recorded in June and July 2022, the statistical institute said in today’s note.
When releasing the provisional statistics for June, INE set definitive figures for May, revising the rate for that month downwards from the previously released figure, from 6.3% to 6.1%.
The unemployment rate remains higher among women than among men. Among the female population, there was 6.5% unemployment in June (178,600 people), while among the male population the rate stood at 5.6% (156,900).
Among young people, the unemployment rate was 18.5%, equivalent to 70,300 people.
Similar to the overall unemployment rate, unemployment among the population aged 16 to 24 also declined, considering seasonally adjusted figures.
In May, the youth unemployment rate stood at 19.4% and, as of 1 June 2024, it was also at a higher level, at 21.5%.
The active population increased in June compared to May and the same period last year, rising to 5.56 million people.
According to INE, in April this year, this indicator “reached its highest level since February 1998”, with the active population totalling 5,569,800 people.
The inactive population also increased by 3,300 compared to May, to 2.47 million (2,468,100).
Compared to June last year, the figure increased by 58,300.
The employed population increased in June to 5.2 million (5,227,800), growing “compared to the previous month (8,300; 0.2%), three months earlier (44,700; 0.9%) and the same month last year (176,800; 3.5%)”.
In addition to data on the unemployment rate, the INE publishes a second indicator that reflects levels of underemployment, taking into account, in addition to the unemployed population, the situations of underemployment of part-time workers. These inactive workers sought employment in the four weeks before the INE inquiry but could start work in the following two weeks, and also inactive workers available to work in the following two weeks but who did not seek employment in the last four weeks.
In total, the INE counted 579,500 people as being underemployed in June.
In addition to the 335,500 unemployed, there were 129,100 part-time workers (4,000 more than in May), as well as 23,100 inactive people looking for work but unavailable, and 91,800 available but not looking for work.
In the first quarter, the unemployment rate stood at 6.6%, according to the latest quarterly data from INE, dated 7 May.
PCT/ADB // ADB.
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