Portugal - Unemployment

For Portugal, a quarterly labor force survey with detail by sex and subnational area.

The main purpose of the Labour Force Survey is to characterize the population in terms of the labour market. It is a quarterly sample survey, addressed to families occupying the same dwelling in the national territory, which makes available quarterly and annual data. The information is obtained directly, though computer-assisted interview, by using a mixed data collection mode: the initial interview is done face-to-face by an interviewer visiting the household and the other five interviews are done by telephone, if certain requirements are met. Published data were calibrated, based on independent estimates of the population, calculated from the definitive results of the 2001 Census.

Quarterly

Active:

• Methodology: Eurostat LFS2021 (IESS)
• Measurements:
  • Thousands of persons (Ths. #)
  • Percent (%)
• Adjustment: Not seasonally adjusted (NSA)
• Native frequency: Quarterly
• Start date: Uniformly 2011Q1
• Geo vintage: NUTS 2024
• Geo coverage:
  • NUTS 1 (all 3x IPRT_^^^^)
  • NUTS 2 (all 9x IPRT_^^)

Predecessors:

• NUTS 2013 (0, 3, 5, 0) - 2011Q1 to 2024Q4 ("_G13")
• Under LFS2011 - 2011Q1 to 2020Q4 ("_20")
• By sex - 1998Q1 to 2010Q4 ("11")

Global concept aliases:

• LBF
• LBE
• LBU
• LBR

Annual

Active:

• Classification: NACE Rev. 2
• Measurement: Thousands of persons (Ths. #)
• Native frequency: Annual
• Start date: As early as 1998
• End date: As late as 2022
• Geo coverage:
  • Country
  • NUTS 1 (3x IPRT_^^^^)
  • NUTS 2 (5x IPRT_^^)

Predecessors:

• NACE Rev. 1.1
• NACE Rev. 1

Definitions

EMPLOYED

All persons aged 15 or over who during the reference period were in the following categories: a) persons who performed some work for a wage or salary, in cash or in kind; b) persons who, having already worked in their present job, were temporarily not at work and had a formal attachment to their job; c) persons with an enterprise, who were temporarily not at work for any specific reason.; d) persons who were offered early retirement, but were working in the reference period.

UNEMPLOYED

All persons aged 15 or over who during the reference period: a) neither had a job nor were at work; b) were available for paid employment or self-employment; c) had actively sought work, i.e. had taken specific steps during the specified period (reference period or the three previous weeks) to seek paid employment or self-employment. The following are considered as specific steps: a) having been in contact with a public employment office or with a private agency to find work; b) applying to employers directly; c) asking among friends, relatives, trade unions, etc., to find work; d) placing, answering or studying job advertisements; e) taking a recruitment test or examination or being interviewed; f) looking for land, premises or equipment; g) applying for permits, licenses or financial resources. The job availability criteria are based on the following: a) the willingness to work; b) the desire to have paid employment or self-employment if the necessary resources can be obtained; c) availability to start working in the reference period or at least within two weeks. Includes all persons who, although already having a job, will only start working on a date subsequent to the reference period (the next three months).

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE

This represents unemployed persons as a percentage of the civilian labour force.

LABOUR FORCE/ACTIVE POPULATION

All persons aged 15 or over who, during the reference period, made up the available labour force for the production of economic goods and services (employed and unemployed).

INACTIVE POPULATION

All persons, regardless of the age, who, during the reference period, could not be considered to be economically active, i.e. who were neither 'employed' nor 'unemployed', nor on compulsory military service.

Moody's Analytics supplements

For the LFS quartet at the national geo level, we back-extend history to 1998, and construct seasonally adjusted counterparts.

Further reading

At the source:

• Statistics » Labour market
• Press releases
• Data table 0012136: Unemployment rate (Series 2021 - %) by Place of residence (NUTS - 2024) and Sex; Quarterly
• Labour Force Survey – Note on the data series started in 2021 (12 May 2021, pdf)

At IMF (SDDS Plus):

• Labor market: Employment (Jan 2025)
• Labor market: Unemployment (Jan 2025)

• Sep 2010 - Initial version of quarterly subset.
• Jan 2012 - Initial version of annual subset.
• 18 Nov 2024, Phillip Thorne - Annual subset terminated: Properties.
• 21 Jul 2025, Phillip Thorne - Geos advanced to NUTS 2024: Properties, Further reading.