The labor market in Portugal has been profoundly impacted by COVID-19, despite measures aimed at maintaining employment levels. This text aims to portray the main harmful effects that the "first wave" of the pandemic had on (un)employment and which economic activities, social categories, and territories were most penalized. Although we are still far from the levels recorded during the previous crisis, the rate at which unemployment has grown since March is much higher than that recorded during that period. This phenomenon has particularly affected younger workers with intermediate qualifications and precarious employment contracts, especially those working in services – particularly activities associated with tourism and real estate – and in industrial sectors especially dependent on the external market, such as the automotive or footwear industries. Unemployment has increased most sharply in the Algarve.
The job market in Portugal at the end of the first wave of COVID-19
Previous
Previous