The labor market in Portugal at the end of the first wave of COVID-19
The labor market in Portugal has been profoundly impacted by COVID-19, despite the measures designed to maintain employment levels. The aim of this text is to portray the main harmful effects that the "first wave" of the pandemic has had on (un)employment and which economic activities, social categories and territories have been most penalized by it. Although we are still far from the levels recorded during the previous crisis, the rate at which unemployment has grown since March is much higher than during that period. This phenomenon has hit younger workers particularly hard, those with intermediate qualifications and precarious contractual relationships, especially those working in services - particularly activities associated with tourism and real estate - and in sectors of industry that are particularly dependent on the foreign market, such as the automobile or footwear industries. Unemployment rose more sharply in the Algarve.
