LISBON: Portugal’s monthly unemployment rate fell to 8.6 percent in September from 8.8 percent the previous month, the lowest since at least 2008, provisional data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) showed on Monday. The jobless rate compares to 10.9 percent in September 2016. The INE revised its original estimate for August 2017 from 8.9 percent.
Nevertheless, the youth unemployment rate of those aged 15 to 24 last month rose to 25.7 percent from 24.8 percent in August, but was below 28.3 percent a year earlier. The total number of those unemployed fell to 442,000 people in September from 451,700 in August, while the employed workforce was slightly higher at 4.72 million.