This is a decrease compared to January, but an increase compared to December 2022.

In a previously released statement, INE indicated that the unemployment rate had dropped by 0.2 points in February compared to January, to 6.8%. Now, the institute says that the unemployment rate in February was 6.9%.

As for March, INE adds that unemployment in Portugal stabilised at 6.9%, that is, a “value equal to February 2023, but higher than December 2022 and March of the same year”, on 0.2 and 1.1 percentage points, respectively.

In this context, the unemployed population fell by 0.3% in March compared to February to 362.5 thousand people (less 1.3 thousand unemployed people). However, compared to the same period in 2022, there is an increase of 21.3% (more 63.6 thousand unemployed people)