Portugal’s first-quarter jobless rate drops to 5.9%

(Reuters) – Portugal’s unemployment rate in the first quarter fell to 5.9%, from 7.1% a year earlier, and from 6.3% in the preceding three months, official data showed on Wednesday.

The youth unemployment rate (16 to 24 years old) fell to 20.6%, from 23.4% in the previous quarter and from 24.1% a year ago.

Between January and March, the total number of unemployed people decreased 6.7% to 308.4 thousand people from the previous three months and fell 14.3% from the same period last year.

(Reporting by Joao Manuel Mauricio in Gdansk)