The Algarve is suffering an “absolutely disproportional” impact from the Covid-19 pandemic, with a huge increase in unemployment when compared to other regions in Portugal, a report by the country’s Inequality Observatory has concluded.
The report, entitled ‘Desemprego em 2020 – Impactos da Pandemia, Mapeamentos e Reflexões’ (Unemployment in 2020 – Impact of the Pandemic, Mapping and Reflections), analysed how the pandemic has affected the work market in Portugal.
In the Algarve, the massive impact of the pandemic is explained by the fact that “the region is highly dependent on tourism, particularly the municipality of Albufeira”.
Says the report, the region’s unemployment numbers are “unprecedented” and led the Algarve to be the region with the largest year-on-year increase in unemployment, followed “from a long distance” by the Lisbon Metropolitan Area.
In March, the Algarve’s unemployment numbers increased 54.6% compared to the same month last year, according to the latest data from the national employment institute (IEFP).
On a national level, unemployment is also growing at a worrying rate.
While it had been decreasing “sustainably since 2012”, the pandemic saw the country’s unemployment numbers skyrocket from 297,931 in January 2020 to 375,150 in December 2020.
