O impacto da COVID-19 no desemprego em Portugal

Abstract

The research conducted in this master´s thesis analyses the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on unemployment in Portugal. It analyses data have from 2007 onwards so that there is a pre-Covid contextualization. This study follows a hermeneutic and qualitative methodology that seeks to contextualize the impact of Covid-19 in 2020, and the measures taken by different governments to face the crisis, such as lockdowns. It also describes the impact of Covid-19 both in Portugal and in the European Union and puts forward an economic analysis, namely of unemployment. The main objective of this work is to answer the research question: what is the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on unemployment in Portugal? Given that this is a comprehensive question, we decided to break it down into a set of sub-questions: before the Covid-19 pandemic, was Portugal on track to converge with the EU when it comes to unemployment levels and economic indicators?; in the context of the pandemic, were the measures taken by the Portuguese government during 2020 sufficient to mitigate unemployment?; what policies were applied in other countries in 2020 that would make sense in Portugal?; Can the EU adopt policies to promote long-term employment?; in this context, what policies to promote economic growth and unemployment can Portugal adopt in the future? The results of this study show that Portugal managed the pandemic well in 2020 and that unemployment was largely mitigated by measures, such as the lay-off. However, Portugal was one of the countries that spent less in fighting the pandemic, but even so it had a high increase in public debt and a steep drop in GDP. Finally, some public policies to better face the economic consequences of Covid-19 are also put forward.

Date of Award	19 Jul 2021
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Gonçalo Nuno de Bettencourt Coutinho Marcelo (Supervisor)