45,500 fewer unemployed in three months, and a jobless rate not seen since 2011
Portugal's unemployment rate fell to 5.3% in the second quarter, down 0.8 percentage points on the first three months of the year. Employment reached 5.4 million people, the highest in 15 years.
There were 300,800 unemployed people in Portugal between April and June. Three months earlier there were 346,300. That gap — 45,500 people in a single quarter — pushed the unemployment rate down to 5.3%, the lowest since 2011, according to the INE Labour Force Survey released this week.
The rate is down 0.8 percentage points on the previous quarter and 0.6 points on the same period of 2025.
The other side of the ledger
Employment rose at the same time, and rose sharply. The employed population reached 5,399,800, up 99,000 on the quarter and 151,500 on the year, the highest level in 15 years. When both ends move together — less unemployment, more employment — you are not simply watching people drop out of the statistics.
Labour underutilisation, the more honest measure because it captures underemployment and available inactive people too, covered 525,800 people and fell to 9.1%. That is also a post-2011 low. Remote working settled at 21.3% of the employed, the highest share since the third quarter of 2023.
Where the picture is still poor
Youth unemployment held at 18.3%. That is more than triple the national average, and it is the figure that has refused to shift for two decades. Regionally, the Setúbal Peninsula recorded the country’s highest rate at 7.4%.
These numbers read best next to how the economy performed in the second quarter and July’s inflation slowing to around 3%: a tight labour market with prices easing slowly. The full release is on the Statistics Portugal release for the second quarter of 2026.
By Beatriz Mota
Chart: Tugadaily · data from INE
