Latest figures by EU statistic agency Eurostat show that the unemployment rate in the European economic area fell to 9.1 percent in June. This is was just above the 9 percent recorded in Portugal, making it the first time since February 2006 that the percentage of jobless here has dropped below the European average.
The shrinking unemployment rate is even more remarkable when compared with 12 months before, when the percentage stood at above 11 percent.
Current estimates point towards the number of jobless in Portugal standing at 473,000.
National hotel and restaurant association AHRESP has refelcted on the dropping unemployment rate.
In a statement published on Wednesday, the association said the half-year results, which will be posted in October, will be even better than those released this week due to the strong performance of the tourism industry so far this year.
Meanwhile, Portugal’s national employment and training institute, the IEFP, has, according to a report by national newspaper Público, launched a campaign to find thousands of temporary employees to fill the extra jobs created to cope with the Algarve’s busiest summer months.
This comes after the head of the region’s largest hotel association AHETA said at least 5,000 people are needed to fill the extra jobs created to cope with the influx of tourists in the height of summer.
Meanwhile, newspaper Correio da Manhã reports most jobs are in areas such as cleaning and room servicing, for which the average pay is of around €600-€700 a month.
Elidérico Viegas, head of AHETA, said “hotels are resorting to paying staff supplements or hiring from temporary employment agencies”, to quell the needs.
In turn the agencies are recruiting labour from beyond the Algarve, from such as the lower Alentejo, and run regular transport between the two regions to ferry employees.
Elidérico Viegas stressed there are jobs available in a number of different areas, but mostly for room cleaning, which is a situation that he says has been ongoing since 2008.
“With the onset of the economic crisis, many people emigrated and immigrants from other countries, who were in Portugal, also left,” he explains, adding: “With this, jobs that do not require major training have lost a significant part of the workforce.”
The union for Algarve Hospitality and Tourism workers has accused entrepreneurs within the sector of not upgrading salaries or paying overtime as required in summer.
However, Elidérico Viegas stressed that “many units keep employees on after summer and pay their salaries even if they have nothing to do”, which in his view, “compensates the extra work which is necessary” in peak season.
Hotel bosses are also asking for labour laws to be made more flexible so they can adjust to the Algarve’s seasonal characteristics.