LISBON: Dole queues are the shortest they have been since the beginning of 2011, latest job figures showed this week. According to Portugal Statistics (INE), the unemployment rate has fallen considerably and stands at 10.8 percent for the second quarter of 2016.
Besides nearing the magical single-digit rate, the number of jobless in Portugal also fell by 16 percent in relation to the previous quarter and just over one percent down on the same quarter last year. The actual number of people without work dropped by over 80,000 to 559,300, with the employment rate also growing by two percent between April and June this year.
For the quarter in question, men represented 51.4 percent of the working population, with the highest unemployment rates being recorded in Madeira (13 percent) and the Alentejo (12.6 percent). The regions with the fewest workers claiming subsidies were the Algarve and central Portugal, with jobless rates of 8.1 and 8.4 percent respectively.
