International body, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has drawn up a list of the worst countries in Europe in which to work - Portugal lies in fourth place due to high unemployment rates and low wages.
The OECD looked at wages, occupational safety and unemployment rates in showing that Portugal was marginally better than Greece, Spain and Turkey in a list of 36 countries led by Norway, Switzerland and Iceland.
The OECD report measured employment, long-term unemployment, job security, pay rates and job insecurity, or "fear of losing your job."
The average score obtained was 6.6 points. Greece came last with 1.5 points, Spain was surprisingly low at 2.4 points and lay behind Turkey with 3.8 points and Portugal with 4.1 points.
With high unemployment rates, Spain was the country where the "fear of losing their job" (17.8%) was more than triple the average (5.4%) of the 34 countries and more than double than of Portugal (8.6%).
Portugal's long-term unemployment rate has dragged it down the scale as it is triple (9.1%) the OECD average of 2.8%.
The per capita income in Portugal also scored low with the OECD average being €23,216 against Portugal’s €18,000.
"Also in Portugal there is a big difference between the richest and poorest - the most favoured 20% of the population earn almost six times more than the 20% most disadvantaged," read the OECD report.
As for other average incomes, Spain was not that much higher than Portugal at €20,590 with Italy at €25,806 and Germany and France at €28,000. Workers in the USA average €37,000 by comparison.
These results are not surprisng as Portugal remains a low wage economy due to wasted opportunities to industrialise and take full advantage of European union membership. This, coupled with the current high unemployment rate and general job insecurity through the long recession, has left the country low on the OECD scale.
The report did not look at self-employment or business start-ups, two areas where Portugal has been expanding, but for low paid manual workers the prospects remain bleak with the new 2016 Socialist budget showing little kindness to those trying to run a household, run a car or to use credit.
