Portugal's Jobless Rate Up 6.8 Pct In 2020

LISBON, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 11th Feb, 2021 ) :Portugal's annual unemployment rate was 6.8 percent in 2020, an increase of 0.3 percentage point compared to 2019, Statistics Portugal (INE) said on Thursday.

In 2020, 350,900 people were out of a job in Portugal, 11,400 more than a year earlier. The unemployment rate was the highest -- 22.6 percent -- among young people aged 15 to 24 years, an increase of 4.3 percentage points year-on-year.

According to the INE, the figures were "influenced by the current situation determined by the COVID-19 pandemic" and "the behavioral changes resulting from the measures taken to safeguard public health." "Likewise, the [economic] measures adopted by the government in the context of the pandemic covered a large number of people who, even though they were in a layoff regime, were classified as employed because they continue to earn more than 50 percent of their usual salary," the INE explained.

Meanwhile, Portugal reported 161 deaths related to COVID-19 and 4,387 cases of infection in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of fatalities to 14,718 and that of the confirmed infections to 774,889 since the beginning of the pandemic.

As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in some countries with the already-authorized coronavirus vaccines. Portugal has already administered 415,000 vaccine doses, according to the secretary of state for health.

Meanwhile, 242 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide -- 63 of them in clinical trials -- in countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain and the United States, according to information released by the World Health Organization on Feb. 9.