The “Report on Persons with Disabilities in Portugal: Human Rights Indicators 2025” was presented today by the coordinator of the Observatory on Disability and Human Rights (ODDH), highlighting that the unemployment rate among the disabled population remains higher than that of people without disabilities in Portugal.
Paula Campos Pinto indicated that data also reveals the long-term unemployment rate, exceeding 12 months, is significantly higher not only compared to the population without disabilities in Portugal but also above the European average, noting that “it has been on the rise since 2022.”
“This is a fact that runs counter to what is observed among people without disabilities in Portugal and the European Union,” she emphasized.
Portugal holds “the fourth lowest [employment rate disparity between people with and without disabilities] in the European Union,” which “seems to be a positive indicator.”
The report, based on Eurostat data, shows Portugal’s disparity is 21.3 percentage points, below the European average of 24 percentage points.
However, this value is four times higher than the gender disparity observed in Portugal, increasing by 7.3 percentage points between 2023 and 2024, while the European average saw a 2.6 percentage point increase.
Paula Campos Pinto remarked that “sometimes it’s necessary to read [the data] in a cross-sectional manner,” noting that the employment rate for people with disabilities has not increased, and it is essential to understand who exactly these individuals are, particularly in the private sector.
“We find an overwhelming majority of individuals with higher education, so 60% of them have either secondary or higher education, and they have a moderate disability level between 60% and 80%, and they are predominantly older individuals,” she explained.
The professor and researcher expressed concern, suggesting that companies may not be hiring people with disabilities, “since younger age groups would likely be recruited,” but instead are reporting as disabled workers those who were already employed and have acquired disabilities through chronic diseases, aging, or conditions like cancer, which also qualify them for a multi-purpose disability certificate.
“Some employment variables may be masking a pseudo-positive situation that might not be as beneficial as it seems, although it is always positive that companies are no longer discarding these individuals or dismissing them, as they perhaps did 10 or 20 years ago,” she argued.
In the private sector, individuals with disabilities aged up to 34 years “represent only 11.9%” of workers, while “68% of the disabled population falls within the age group of 45 years or older,” Campos Pinto stated.
“Such a significant imbalance suggests it’s unlikely that companies are hiring people above 45 years of age with disabilities. This leads us to think that these individuals were probably already employees of those companies and have acquired some type of disability,” she argued.
According to the researcher, bias and stigma continue to affect the hiring of people with disabilities, but she also noted the need for measures that encourage employers and reduce the bureaucracy often associated with such processes.
“Support for companies still involves significant bureaucracy, making the process slow and thus discouraging,” she argued.
Regarding the quota law, which mandates that companies with 75 or more employees hire people with disabilities exceeding 60%, Campos Pinto pointed out that the quota does not reach 1%—and companies with more than 250 employees must meet a 2% requirement—demonstrating that there is “ample room for growth and improvement of these indicators.”
