Portugal reports rising employment in July

Portugal had an estimated 5.347 million employed people in July 2026, up 82,900, or 1.6%, from a year earlier, according to provisional data from INE. The unemployment rate was 5.7%, unchanged from June and 0.1 percentage point below July 2025.

Unemployment was 6.4% among women and 4.9% among men. The youth unemployment rate was 20.1%, compared with 4.6% for adults. INE also reported a labour-underutilisation rate of 9.5%. The source's reference to a low since February 1998 concerns the inactivity rate, not the overall unemployment rate.