Unemployment in the Algarve below the national average at the end of 2025

The unemployment rate stood at 5.8% in the fourth quarter of 2025, registering a reduction of 0.9 percentage points compared to the same period last year and remaining unchanged compared to the previous quarter, according to data released today by the National Statistics Institute (INE).

Between October and December, the number of unemployed people was estimated at 326.3 thousand people, a figure practically identical to that of the previous quarter, but which represents a decrease of 11.4%, corresponding to 42.0 thousand fewer people, year-on-year.

With regard to youth unemployment, relating to the population between 16 and 24 years old, the rate was estimated at 19.8%. This indicator increased by 1.0 percentage points compared to the previous quarter, but decreased by 2.0 percentage points compared to the same period of the previous year.

In the fourth quarter of 2025, the unemployment rate was higher than the national average (5.8%) in the Setúbal Peninsula (8.0%) in the North (6.0%) and in Alentejo (5.9%), equaled the average in Greater Lisbon and was lower in Algarve (5,3%) in the West and Tagus Valley (5.2%), in the autonomous regions of the Azores (5.1%) and Madeira (4.9%) and in the Center (4.5%).

In relation to the previous quarter, increases were observed in five regions, the largest of which was in the Setúbal Peninsula (1.1 percentage points) and decreases in four regions, highlighting the Central region (0.6 percentage points).

In the year-on-year comparison, the unemployment rate increased in two regions, with the biggest increase in the Setúbal Peninsula (0.3 percentage points), and decreased in the remaining regions, with emphasis on the reduction in Greater Lisbon (1.6 percentage points).

Employment grows and teleworking increases

The underutilization of labor (which aggregates the unemployed population, the underemployment of part-time workers, inactive people looking for a job, but not available, and inactive people available, but not looking for a job) covered 571.2 thousand people in the last quarter of 2025, 0.5% less (2.7 thousand) compared to the previous quarter and 8.7% lower (54.3 thousand) than the same period last year.

The labor underutilization rate, estimated at 9.9%, equaled that of the previous quarter and decreased by 1.2 percentage points year-on-year.

In the fourth quarter of 2025, 36.1% of the unemployed population had been in this condition for 12 or more months (long-term unemployment), a figure 0.2 percentage points higher than in the previous quarter and 1.4 percentage points lower than in the same quarter.

With regard to the inactive population aged 16 and over, (3,730.1 thousand) it increased by 0.7% (26.5 thousand) compared to the previous quarter and decreased by 0.2% (7.2 thousand) compared to the same period last year.

The inactivity rate of the population aged 16 or over stood at 39.7%, a value 0.1 percentage points higher than in the third quarter of 2025 and 0.7 percentage points lower than in the fourth quarter of 2024.

As for the employed population (5,339.5 thousand people), it increased by 0.1% (7.4 thousand) compared to the previous quarter and 3.7% (190.7 thousand) compared to the same quarter of 2024.

According to , the proportion of the population employed in teleworking, that is, working from home using information and communication technologies, was 21.2% (1,129.4 thousand people), 1.8 percentage points higher than in the third quarter of 2025 and 0.7 percentage points higher than in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Also read: