The increase in the employed population in the second quarter of 2021 to pre-pandemic levels is viewed by the government as a “sign of economic viability”. In the video released this Wednesday, in response to INE numbersEconomy Minister Pedro Siza Vieira says the results are “impressive.”
“The employed population in Portugal is a historic high and even surpassed the figures for the second quarter of 2019,” the minister said. “Portugal currently employs 4,810,000 people. There are 128,000 more of them than in the previous quarter, ”says Siza Vieira.
“The service sector, which has been hit hardest by the pandemic, has itself created more than 100,000 jobs, of which 25,000 are in housing, catering and similar sectors,” he notes. According to the minister, “the ability to create jobs is a sign of the vitality of the economy.”
“New companies, companies that are developing or reopening, are the ones that hire people because they know they will have clients who may need their services,” he concludes in the post.
On Wednesday, INE reported that in the second quarter of this year, 36.3 thousand (more than 0.8%) people were employed more than in the same three months of 2019. Compared to the second quarter of 2020, the number of employed people increased by 4.5% (or 208.9 thousand).
The unemployment rate is 6.7%. The unemployed population, estimated at 345.7 thousand people, decreased by 0.4% compared to the first quarter, but increased by 24.2% compared to the second quarter of 2020.
