The unemployment rate was 6.7% in February, down 0.2 percentage points from last year but 0.1 percentage points higher than January, according to preliminary data released Tuesday by the National Statistics Institute (INE).
“The unemployment rate was 6.7%, up 0.1 percentage point from the previous month and three months earlier, but 0.2 percentage point lower than the same month in 2023,” he adds in “ Monthly Employment and Unemployment Estimates for February.
In that month, there were 359.4 thousand unemployed people, which is 2.1% more than in January, 3.2% compared to three months earlier and 1.1% less than in January 2023.
The seasonally adjusted youth unemployment rate, covering people aged 16 to 24, was 23.1% in February this year, up from 18.9% in the same month in 2023 and 23.8% the previous month.
The employed population grew by 1.9% compared to February 2023, but decreased by 0.1% quarter-on-quarter (compared to January 2024).
The inactive population was 2,434,900, up 0.8% from a year earlier and up 0.1% from January.
The workforce underutilization rate, which includes the unemployed population, underemployed part-time workers, inactive people looking for work but not available, and inactive people available but not looking for work, was 11.5%, down from January. 2024 (0.1 percentage points) and February 2023 (0.6 percentage points).
INE also published final statistics for January 2024, revising upward the target rate, which was 6.5%, to 6.6%.
Thus, the unemployment rate in January was 0.4 percentage points lower than the same month in 2023 and 0.1 percentage points higher than December of the same year.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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