Portugal: characteristics, pathways and employment of young jobseekers

Scope of the study

Youth unemployment has been at the centre of public debate for over a decade, and understanding the different situations and their causes is essential to combating it. The report 'Young jobseekers registered with the IEFP: characteristics, trajectories and employment' provides an in-depth look at young people between the ages of 16 and 29. The Youth Employment Observatory conducted the study in cooperation with the Institute for Employment and Vocational Training (IEFP) and ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon. 

The data were collected between March and June 2023, when 140 000 young people contacted the IEFP to look for a job. At the end of June 2023, around 98 000 young people were registered with the IEFP. The study report was released in July 2024.

Key findings 

Three groups of young people were identified as requiring special attention: young people with low qualifications, young people with higher education in fields that are less easily integrated into the labour market, and young migrants:

• young people with up to the 3rd cycle of basic education (9th grade) represent 28.7%t of those registered. Due to their lack of skills, this group faces difficulties competing with a more educated workforce;
• young people with higher education in ‘Social sciences, business and law’ (41.6%) and ‘Arts and humanities’ (15.1%) have more significant employment difficulties than graduates from other fields;
• young unemployed with a migrant background (18.5%), mainly from Portuguese-speaking countries (64.9%), have a shorter registration time and a significant weight in placements, even though they are less covered by active employment policies;
• the occupations with the highest correlation between the desired occupation and employment are the ‘Intellectual and scientific’ occupations (61%). However, even in this case, many young individuals find themselves in jobs that differ from their preferences.

Main recommendations

The study outlines some recommendations for improving young people's access to the labour market:

• develop active labour market policies that attract young people with low qualifications into VET programmes;
• create on-the-job training opportunities providing financial support to companies that train low-skilled young people;
• support women's participation in technological fields by promoting policies that attract them more to engineering and information technology, where women are underrepresented while there is a high demand for qualified professionals;
• promote young migrants’ recognition of qualifications to improve their integration in sectors that contribute to the modernisation of the national economy; 
• introduce reskilling programmes, with the involvement of universities and polytechnics, to help young people acquire new skills and improve their employability through higher education in areas where it is more challenging to enter the labour market.

Read more

• Report Young jobseekers registered with the IEFP: Characteristics, trajectories and employment