Distribution of graduate unemployment in Portugal 2020-2024, by field of study
Portugal's graduate unemployment landscape between 2020 and 2024 reveals a striking imbalance across fields of study. Business sciences, administration, and law graduates faced the highest unemployment rate at 25.7 percent, while information and communication technologies (ICT) graduates experienced the lowest at 1.8 percent. The social sciences, journalism, and information field and arts and humanities presented the second and third-highest shares of unemployed graduates registered in employment centers, with 18 and 15.7 percent, respectively.
Rising graduate numbers, persistent gender gap
The number of higher education graduates in Portugal has more than doubled since the late 1990s, reaching over 95,600 in the 2022/2023 academic year. Women consistently outnumbered men among graduates, with nearly 56,000 female graduates compared to 40,000 male graduates in the most recent year. However, this gender gap reversed in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, where men accounted for 65 percent of graduates across all study cycles during the 2022/2023 academic year.
Growing higher education enrollment
Despite the increasing number of graduates, the unemployment rate for the youth has been decreasing slowly since the end of 2023. The positive trend occurred as higher education enrollment continues to grow, with over 446,000 students in the 2022/2023 academic year. Universities attract more students than polytechnic institutes across all regions, with Greater Lisbon hosting the largest student population of over 147,000, despite not being the country’s region with the highest number of higher education establishments.
