Pordata Posts Portugal Fourth in the EU on Youth Precarious Work — 60% of Under-24s and 40% of Workers Under 30 on Temporary Contracts as Frederico Cantante Says Personnel Records Show Even Higher Numbers
Pordata's 1 May data drop puts Portugal fourth in the EU on youth precarious work — roughly 60% of workers under 24 and 40% of workers under 30 are on temporary contracts. CoLABOR sociologist Frederico Cantante says administrative records make the picture even worse.
The Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos dropped its 2026 Workers' Day labour-market analysis through Pordata on Friday — and the read is unflattering. Portugal sits fourth in the European Union on youth precarious work, with the country's youngest workers carrying a temporary-contract burden two-and-a-half times the share of the workforce as a whole.
The Numbers
Pordata's headline cuts:
- 15.1% of all Portuguese workers are on temporary contracts — top-five in the EU alongside the Netherlands, Poland, France and Spain.
- Workers under 18: roughly 60% on temporary contracts.
- Ages 18-24: roughly 60% on temporary contracts.
- Ages 25-34: roughly 40% on temporary contracts.
- Workers under 30 overall: roughly 40% on fixed-term arrangements.
The data is drawn from Eurostat's 2025 Labour Force Survey applied to the employed population aged 15 to 64. The structural gap between Portugal and the EU average — 15.1% versus the EU's 12.5% — is widest precisely in the cohorts that should be entering stable career tracks.
The Sectoral Pattern
Three sectors carry the lion's share of the Portuguese precarity burden:
- Hospitality and food service (alojamento e restauração) — over 40% of contracts non-permanent; this is the single largest precarity reservoir in the country and the one most exposed to the seasonal tourism cycle.
- Construction — historically high project-based contracting, exacerbated by the post-PRR investment push.
- Call centres and outsourced services — the BPO cluster around Lisbon, Braga and the Algarve runs on rolling fixed-term contracts that cycle workers in and out within the legal six-renewal limit.
The Researcher's Reading
Frederico Cantante, sociologist at the CoLABOR applied research centre, told Público that the official survey-based figures actually understate the problem: 'If we analyse personnel records data, the expression of precarity in dependent work is actually considerably higher.' The administrative microdata — the Quadros de Pessoal and Relatório Único filings every Portuguese employer submits — capture short-cycle service contracts and false self-employment that the household-survey method misses.
Why It Matters Beyond the Workplace
The downstream consequences of front-loaded precarity show up across the demographic and housing data. Portuguese workers leave the parental home at a median age of around 29 — well above the European mean of 26. Mortgage approvals for under-30s have collapsed under the combined pressure of sky-high Lisbon and Porto prices and the bank-side reluctance to credit-score a fixed-term contract. The government's first-time-buyer guarantee programme was specifically designed to plug this gap; uptake has run below expectation precisely because applicants need a permanent contract to qualify.
The Political Backdrop
The data lands in the middle of the pacote laboral fight. The government's labour-reform package would expand the legal scope of fixed-term contracting and outsourcing; the unions argue the proposal will deepen exactly the precarity Pordata documented. The CGTP has called a general strike for 3 June; the UGT decides on 7 May whether to join. Friday's data has just handed both confederations a fresh statistical brief.
