The unemployment situation in Portugal has eased somewhat, dropping to 13.2% in May of this year.
In May last year, the rate was running at 14.4%. From then on, the rate dropped steadily until April when it bottomed at 12.8% before bouncing up 0.4%.
While 742,000 people were without work in May 2014, a year later 677,000 were jobless.
Portuguese youth fared a bit better too. The rate fell from 36.5% a year ago to 33.3%. As a result, 123,000 people aged to 25 were registered as unemployed.
The euro area’s average was 11.1%, down from 11.6% in May 2014. This was the lowest rate recorded since March 2012.
Even so, this means that 17,726,000 people just in the eurozone had no jobs. In the wider EU countries, 23,348,000 were jobless.
Despite the improvement in Portugal, its rate is the fourth highest in the euro region and the fifth highest in the EU.
It was surpassed only by Croatia 15.8%, Cyprus 16%, Spain 22.5%, and Greece 25.6%.
Lowest unemployment rates were seen in Germany 4.7% and the UK 5.4%.
