More than 84,000 unemployed get jobs in Q1

  • Lusa
  • 18 May 2022

Statistics Portugal (INE) said on Wednesday that 84,700, who were unemployed in the fourth quarter of 2021 transitioned into employment in the first quarter of 2022.

More than a quarter (25.6%) of people, or 84,700, who were unemployed in the fourth quarter of 2021 transitioned into employment in the first quarter of this year, Statistics Portugal (INE) said on Wednesday.

“Of the total number of people who were unemployed in the fourth quarter” of last year, “54.0% (178,700) remained in this state” in the first three months of 2022 and “25.6% (84,700) transitioned into employment”, according to the statistics of flows between labour market states for the first quarter.

More than a fifth (20.4%), or 67,300, “transitioned into inactivity”, according to INE.

“Approximately one in three short-term unemployed (33.4%; 57,500) and one in nine people belonging to the ‘potential labour force’ (11.4%; 17,900) in the fourth quarter of 2021 transitioned into employment in the first quarter of 2022,” the document reads.

In the same period, “9.6% (69,800) of people who were self-employed in the previous quarter transitioned into employment”.

The percentage of people who were employees and who became self-employed “remained at 1.9% for the third consecutive quarter (76,100),” INE said.

Of the total number of employees that in the last quarter of last year had a fixed-term contract or another type of contract, “22.0% (146,300) moved to an open-ended contract in the first quarter of 2022”.

According to the data, “about one in five part-time employees (19.0%; 75,800) in the fourth quarter of 2021 moved to full-time employment” in the first three months of this year, “identical proportion to the previous quarter”.

Also, the percentage of people who remained employed between the last quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of this year but changed jobs remained “unchanged from the previous period (3.6%; 170,400)”.

The net flow of employment (total entries minus total exits) “was of a positive sign and estimated at 22,000 people”.

With regards to the net flow of unemployment, this “was negative and estimated at 22,200 people”, which “results from the total number of people that moved into unemployment (129,800) being lower than the total number of people that left unemployment (152,000).