Portugal’s rate of unemployment rose to 15 percent of the active population in the second quarter of this year, after totalling 14.9 percent in the first quarter, which means that there are over 820,000 people out of work, the National Statistics Institute (INE) said Tuesday in Lisbon.

INE also said that the number of unemployed people in the second quarter of the year was 22.5 percent more than in the same period of last year, which means that in the last 12 months 151,000 people have lost their jobs.

In just three months, from the first to the second quarter, there was a rise of 0.9 percent in the number of unemployed people, or 7,600 people.

The latest figures from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) point to a continued rise in the rate of unemployment to a15.4 percent this year and to 16.2 percent in 2013.

These estimates, which were published on 26 July, are more pessimistic than the projections of the three-way commission supervising the financial bailout in Portugal, which points to unemployment reaching between 15.5 percent and 15.9 percent. (macauhub)