The unemployment rate in Portugal fell to 8.8 percent in the second quarter of this year from 10.1 percent in the first, the Portuguese National Statistics Institute says.
Data compiled by the institute indicate that the second-quarter jobless rate was the lowest since 2011, when the institute changed the way it measured unemployment.
In the service sector, 13 percent fewer workers were unemployed in the second quarter than in the first, and 28 percent fewer farm workers were out of a job.
The Portuguese government has predicted that the unemployment rate will fall to 9.9 percent this year from 11.1 percent last year.
