August Added 4,623 People to Portugal's Jobless Register, and University Graduates Were the Only Education Group Above Last Year
273,723 people were signed on at the job centres at the end of August, a second consecutive monthly rise but still 9.3 percent below a year ago. Every level of schooling fell over twelve months except higher education, which rose 1 percent.
At the end of August there were 273,723 people registered as unemployed at Portugal's job centres, 4,623 more than at the end of July. It is the second month in a row that the register has grown, and it follows five straight months of decline that ended in July. The figures come from the monthly report published on Monday by the Instituto do Emprego e Formação Profissional (Institute for Employment and Vocational Training), the state body that runs the centros de emprego.
The year-on-year picture is still clearly better. Against August 2025, when 301,638 people were registered, the roll is down by 27,915, or 9.3 percent. Every region recorded a fall over twelve months, led by the North at 14.9 percent, Madeira at 10.5 percent and the Azores at 7.0 percent.
Graduates are the exception
Break the register down by education and one line moves the other way. People with higher education made up 40,338 of the total in August, which is 392 more than in August last year, a rise of 1.0 percent. Every other level of schooling fell, and most fell sharply: those with no formal schooling were down 15.4 percent on the year, first-cycle basic education down 16.1 percent, third cycle down 13.0 percent and secondary down 6.7 percent.
Graduates also account for a disproportionate share of the month's increase. Their number rose 5.0 percent between July and August, against 1.7 percent for the register as a whole. Graduates are now 14.7 percent of everyone registered, up from 13.2 percent a year earlier.
There is a parallel in the occupational data. The only large group above its level of a year ago is senior management: legislators, executives, directors and managers, up 8.3 percent, though only 3.4 percent of the register. Falling fastest are skilled industrial, construction and craft workers, down 14.8 percent, and plant and machine operators, down 14.2 percent.
Where the month's increase came from
Regionally, August's monthly rise was concentrated in the Centre, up 3.3 percent, and Lisbon and the Tagus Valley, up 2.0 percent. Registrations by people looking for a first job rose 5.2 percent on July, and the under-25s rose 4.8 percent, both of which point to the annual arrival of school and university leavers on the register rather than to job losses.
Long-term registrations were flat. The number of people signed on for a year or more was 107,554, exactly one more than in July, and down 11.1 percent on the year.
Vacancies and placements
Unfilled vacancies held on file by the job centres stood at 19,248 at the end of August, up 2.7 percent on July and 2.6 percent on a year earlier. Employers notified 9,557 new vacancies during the month, 13.7 percent more than in August 2025. Placements, though, came to 6,081, down 7.8 percent on July and 2.2 percent on the year.
Among vacancies notified on the mainland, the largest categories were real estate, administrative and support service activities at 28.9 percent, wholesale and retail at 13.5 percent, public administration, education, health and social support at 11.6 percent, and accommodation and food at 10.6 percent.
One caution on reading these numbers: registered unemployment is not the unemployment rate. It counts people who have signed on at a job centre, a different measure from the labour force survey that produces the headline rate, and the two move differently. Portugal's rate from that survey fell to 5.3 percent earlier this summer. The register is better read as a monthly signal about who is walking through the door of a centro de emprego, and in August that increasingly included people with a degree.
