The Algarve was, alongside Malta (Malta) and Central Bohemia (Czech Republic), and after only the Maiote region of France, the European Union (EU) region where employment grew the most in 2017.


The Algarve also outperformed Greater Lisbon, which came in seventh.


Fresh Eurostat data shows the regions of the Algarve and Greater Lisbon are among nine regions within the EU where employment increased the most in 2017.


In the Algarve, employment grew by 5.3 percent, which was the second highest percentage in the EU, while in Greater Lisbon, employment increased by 4.1 percent, seeing the Portuguese capital rise to seventh position.


The European Union is divided into 253 regions, 90 percent of which saw the number of people employed expand in 2017.


The highest growth occurred in the Maiote region of France (7.7 percent) followed by the regions of Malta, the Algarve and Central Bohemia, which all registered increases of 5.3 percent.


Greater Lisbon landed in the third group of regions where employment rose the most in 2017, along with the South-Central region of Bulgaria (4.1 percent).


In addition to these figures, Eurostat noted that in 19 EU regions employment growth exceeded three percent.


The European Union’s statistics office further stressed that, in 2017, of the 253 regions, only 26 saw job numbers fall, while two stagnated.


Among the 26 regions which saw job creation decrease, the most significant instances were Basilicata in Italy (-2.7 percent) followed by Cumbria in the United Kingdom (-2.4 percent), the Central and Western regions of Lithuania (-2.1 percent), South Yorkshire, in the United Kingdom (-2 percent) and Liguria, Italy (-1.9 percent).


In related news, the Algarve Inter-municipal Community association AMAL is carrying out a survey of the region’s social needs to implement the first ever regional plan in the field, which, among other issues, aims to address unemployment.


AMAL’s First Secretary told Lusa News Agency that the need to create a network of soup kitchens, tackle unemployment and to find housing solutions that make the region more attractive to anchor the population, are matters being debated during the elaboration of the Algarve Supra-Municipal Social Development Plan.


Joaquim Brandão Pires told Lusa that the plan, which involves the participation of the Algarve’s 16 municipal councils and the Social Security Institute (ISS), along with several other entities, should be complete by summer and come into force on 1 January 2020, being valid until 2025.


Efforts to diagnose social concerns and needs focus on several areas, from unemployment to housing, health, demography, lack of social facilities for the elderly, children and young people, mobility and public transportation networks, domestic violence, social vulnerability and poverty, among others.


“We have to find solutions to solve problems that, for the most part, are infrastructural, but which have a very pronounced social impact” said Joaquim Brandão Pires, giving the examples of homelessness and lack of a regular public transport network.
“The problem of lack of housing is strongly conditioning the arrival of new people to the region, which is no longer as attractive and whose population is aging”, he said.


The project is spearheaded by AMAL, in partnership with the ISS, but also has the partnership of the Regional Health Administration (ARS) of Algarve, the Institute of Employment and Professional Training (IEFP), the Algarve University and the Directorate- General of the Algarve School Establishments.