Coronavirus pandemic sends Portugal jobless rate to 7% in June

The touristy southern Algarve region, usually packed with visitors but now nearly deserted, was badly hit, with the number of registered unemployed in June jumping 231% from around 8,000 to more than 26,000 people. Women and those under 25 have been hit the hardest by job losses in the pandemic, said IEFP. In its flash estimate on Wednesday, INE said the jobless rate among Portugal's young people increased by 4.2 percentage points to 25.6% in June.

Portugal's monthly unemployment rate rose to 7% in June from a revised 5.9% in May as thousands of jobs were wiped out amid the coronavirus pandemic, the National Statistics Institute (INE) said on Wednesday. Unemployment had been falling as the country slowly recovered from the debt crisis, but is likely to soar to 9.6% this year due to the impact of the outbreak on the economy, Prime Minister Antonio Costa said last month.

"The evolution of the labour market continues to be marked by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic," INE said in a statement, adding there was a sharp drop in employment between February and May. The country's gross domestic product, heavily dependent on tourism, grew 2.2% in 2019, while unemployment was at 6.5%, near record lows, but coronavirus lockdowns in Portugal and abroad have kept tourists away and forced many businesses to shut their doors.

A total of 406,665 people were registered as unemployed in Portugal last month, a 36% increase compared with the same period last year, official figures from the Institute of Employment and Professional Training (IEFP) showed. The touristy southern Algarve region, usually packed with visitors but now nearly deserted, was badly hit, with the number of registered unemployed in June jumping 231% from around 8,000 to more than 26,000 people.

Women and those under 25 have been hit the hardest by job losses in the pandemic, said IEFP. In its flash estimate on Wednesday, INE said the jobless rate among Portugal's young people increased by 4.2 percentage points to 25.6% in June.