Portugal’s unemployment rate rose for a second successive quarter during the first three months of the year, data from Statistics Portugal showed Wednesday.
The jobless rate climbed to 13.7 percent in the first quarter from 13.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014. It was the highest rate since the second quarter of last year, when it was 13.9 percent.
In the first quarter of 2014, the unemployment rate was 15.1 percent.
There were 712,900 unemployed during the first quarter, which was 2.1 percent higher, or by 14,600 persons more, than the previous quarter. However, the figure was 9.5 percent lower or by 75,200 persons less than a year ago.
Employment, meanwhile, declined by 0.3 percent or 14,500 persons from the previous quarter to 4.48 million.
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