the Collaborative Laboratory for Work, Employment and Social Protection, in partnership with the Business Confederation of the Minho Region, DST Group, Mota-Engil and Sonae, its associates, is presenting today the report Employment in Portugal – Diagnosis and Recommendations for Public Policy and Business Strategies at a conference/debate at the Manuel António da Mota Foundation.
The report presented today, and available on the project's microsite https://eep.colabor.pt/, identifies nine structural issues that continue to condition the functioning and growth capacity of the Portuguese labor market and five priorities for action.
Among the main challenges are difficulties in workforce growth, obstacles to recruiting and retaining workers, underutilization of the potential active population, the gap between productivity and wages, inadequacies in the tax system, challenges associated with the integration of immigrant labor, the need for coordination between levels of social dialogue and negotiation, and the diversification of Social Security financing.
Based on this diagnosis, the study identifies three major problems shaping the future of employment in Portugal: skills shortages and a mismatch between available training and the needs of companies, particularly in the industrial and technological sectors; adverse demographic dynamics, marked by an aging population, the emigration of qualified young people, and the need to integrate immigrant workers; and low levels of productivity and low wages, associated with an economic model still too heavily reliant on low value-added activities.
To address these challenges, the report proposes five priority areas for intervention:
Reconversion of the economy, increasing the importance of strategic sectors and those with higher added value;
Promoting vocational and technical education;
Retraining programs for digital and green transitions tailored to vulnerable workers;
integration of immigrant workers;
Strengthening fiscal and financial literacy throughout life.
Measures directed at the State, businesses and social partners
Among the concrete recommendations, the following stand out: strengthening the link between companies and the education system; promoting integrated vocational training models that are properly connected to the business sector; integration programs for immigrants in the first years after arriving in Portugal; and promoting collaborative networks aimed at productivity gains with guaranteed salary increases.
The authors emphasize that implementing these measures requires collaborative and multi-level governance, involving the State, businesses, trade unions, the scientific community, local authorities, and entities within the employment and training system, highlighting the contribution of different actors to negotiated and sustainable solutions in the labor market.
They also argue that the challenges of the labor market require coordinated, long-term responses capable of fostering dialogue between public policies, business strategies, and scientific knowledge.
Methodology
The study – scientifically coordinated by a team of CoLABOR researchers, with contributions from external experts in the areas of fiscal policy, skills and quality of employment, and migration – was developed using diverse methods, including CoLABOR thematic workshops, focus groups and bilateral meetings with representatives from different sectors, interviews with partner companies, a review of specialized literature, and statistical analysis of national and international sources.