Despite political spin to the contrary, the truth is that Portugal closed 2014 as the European country that had most lost jobs and now has the lowest number of people available for work since 1999. The ‘shock facts’ that opposition politicians have been trying to stress throughout this government’s tenure have been confirmed this week by Eurostat. It means the “active population” has shrunk to levels unseen for the last 15 years.
Taking statistics across the board, Eurostat shows that on average the number of jobs available in Europe’s 28 member states actually grew 0.2% in the last three months of 2014. Only five countries lost jobs: Cyprus, Malta, Poland, Italy and Portugal.
But while the first four lost jobs at a similar rate, Portugal was the only country to suffer “much more accelerated losses”, writes ionline.
Eurostat’s data shows Malta losing 0.1% between October and December, Italy 0.2%, Poland 0.3% and Cyprus 0.6%.
“Portugal more than doubled Cyprus’ rhythm of destruction”, reports the paper, “losing 1.4% of the total number of jobs registered in the final three months of last year”.
natasha.donn@algarveresident.com
