Unemployment rises to 6.7% in February, but remains below that recorded in 2023

It is a slight increase compared to the 6.6% rate recorded in January this year and which was revised upwards compared to the 6.5% initially predicted by the National Statistics Institute (INE). February ended with the unemployment rate at 6.7%, according to data released this Tuesday by the national statistics body.

The number reflects a chain increase, but in a year-on-year comparison, that is, considering the month of February 2023, national unemployment drops 0.2 percentage points.

The data for the month of February are still provisional, but point to an increase in the active population by 4.1 thousand people (0.1%) compared to January this year, while the inactive population will have increased by 1.5 thousand (0 ,1%).

According to INE, in the case of the active population, there was an increase of 7.2 thousand (2.1%) of the unemployed population and a decrease of 3.2 thousand people (0.1%) of the employed population.

The statistics body also highlights that the evolution seen in the inactive population “was the result of the increase in the number of other inactive people, those who are neither looking for a job nor available to work (9.3 thousand; 0.4%), which exceeded the decreases observed in the remaining components of that population”.

When comparing data with February 2023, the active population increased by 87.4 thousand people (1.7%). A positive evolution justified mainly by the increase in the employed population (91.6 thousand; 1.9%), which surpassed the decrease in the unemployed population (4.2 thousand; 1.1%). The inactive population increased by 19.7 thousand people (0.8%) due to the increase in the number of other inactive people (31.3 thousand; 1.4%).

It was these results that, according to INE, determined the variation in the unemployment rate in February, which stood at 6.7%, a value higher than that of the previous month (0.1 pp) and lower than that of the same month in 2023 (- 0.2 pp).

INE also highlights that in the second month of the year, the underutilization of labor covered 633.2 thousand people, a figure lower than that of the previous month (2.4 thousand; 0.4%) and that of the same period in 2023 (20.9 thousand; 3.2%). The labor underutilization rate — estimated at 11.5% — decreased in both comparison periods: 0.1 pp in chair and 0.6 pp in year-on-year terms.