The unemployment rate fell to 5.7%, a new low in more than a decade.

The unemployment rate fell to 5.7% in the second quarter of this year, down 0.2 points from the previous quarter and 1 point from the same period last year.

This repeats the low recorded in the second quarter of 2020, when due to the pandemic, INE identified more inactive workers than unemployed people actively looking for work. These are the lowest numbers since the series launched in 2011.

Data released this Wednesday by the National Statistical Institute shows that the unemployed population is estimated to to 298.8 thousand people, decreased by 3.1% compared to the previous quarter.

However, jobs were not created in the evolution of the chain either. The idle population increased. In relation to the same period of the previous year, the increase in the employed population amounted to 1.9%.

The so-called “underutilization of labour,” created as a supplement to the unemployment rate to reach a wider range of the inactive, has also fallen to 600,000 people.