In the presentation of the June Economic Bulletin in Lisbon, Mário Centeno issued a warning about the labor market, which has been a “pillar” of economic activity.
“We have had six consecutive months of net job destruction, not employment. The last time this happened was in the first quarter of 2013. It’s one of those alerts that the BdP must make in sensitive areas”, emphasized the governor.
This area is even more sensitive, he argued, given that “changes in the labor market tend to be abrupt,” even when they are not large in scale.
The first indicators are usually the hiring rate and the job destruction rate (separations), he noted, and it is in these indicators that there has been a change in trend in recent months.
Centeno, who is nearing the end of his term at the helm of the BdP, reiterated this warning because “a good part of the health of the Portuguese economy and the euro area relies on the labor market.”
“And complacency is something we must avoid in economic policy,” he added.
In this bulletin, the BdP forecasts a slowdown in employment and wages, with the unemployment rate remaining stable at 6.4%.
