The Vice-President of the Government highlighted the downward trend in unemployment and the growth of employment in the Azores. According to data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) regarding the first quarter of 2018, "there has been a year-on-year reduction of the unemployment rate for 15 consecutive quarters in comparison with the same period of the previous year."
 
"There has also been a reduction in the number of unemployed Azorean for 15 consecutive quarters, compared to the same quarter of the previous year. The number of employed has been growing for the last six quarters in comparison with the same period of time,” stressed Sérgio Ávila.
 
The Vice-President also pointed out that the unemployment rate registered in the last three quarters "is the lowest of the last seven years." In this regard, the government official mentioned that the number of unemployed Azoreans "is also the lowest of the last seven years" and the employed population in the Azores in the last nine months "registers the highest figures of the last nine years."
 
"If we compare the figures registered four years ago, there are now 12,487 more employed Azoreans and 10,794 fewer unemployed Azoreans," stated Sérgio Ávila. He considered that the data now released by INE show a "downward trend in unemployment and the growth of employment for 15 consecutive quarters, compared to the same period of the previous year."
 
However, the Vice-President pointed out that these data "pose new challenges" regarding the ability to mitigate the seasonality still occurring in the Azores during the first and fourth quarters of the year and the capacity to absorb the growth of the working population."
 
In this regard, the government official stressed that it is necessary to "reinforce policies aimed at mitigating the effects of seasonality as well as policies to promote employment in order to quickly absorb the working population that has been growing in the Azores," said the Vice-President of the Government.
 
According to the INE data for the first quarter of 2018, the number of unemployed Azoreans decreased 4.6% (523 fewer unemployed) in the Azores and the employed population grew 0.3% (307 more jobs). In turn, the unemployment rate fell by 0.4 percentage points, registering an increase of 0.6 percentage points over the previous quarter.