to explain why “average market flexibility in Portugal appears to be higher than in
Spain and other European countries, despite the high rigidity of the regulations” (Silva
Lopes 2003: 277)17. Then again, there is also a generalized phenomenon of geographical
limits to labour mobility, due to historical reasons, reinforcing the existence of severe
regional discrepancies in terms, namely, of the employment situation18
.
To conclude this section, we would like to emphasise the high incidence of undeclared
work and the significant weight of the informal economy. Studies recently published
by the Bank of Portugal “estimate that, based on a calculation of the difference
between official and effective income per capita, the informal sector in Portugal has a
share of about 22.1% in the economy” (Naumann and Simões 2007: 3)19. From a social
exclusion perspective, at the same time that informal work “provides some income to
offset the virtual absence of state welfare support”, it is often associated with unregulated
work situations characterized by poor (and potentially dangerous) working conditions,
low wages and no social benefits, where the opportunities for skills upgrading
are almost non existent and contribute to the workers entrapment in a precarious sector
of the labour market (Gallie 2004: 5). Nonetheless, informal work is becoming the
only employment alternative for many people whom the ongoing financial and economic
crisis is throwing out of work20
.
These are very important and persistent obstacles, that have been consensually
identified both by academics21 and politicians, but have not until now be overcome22
.
17 Another interesting aspect of the Portuguese case until very recently lied on the coexistence of rigid
labour regulations with low unemployment levels. Some of the answers for this intriguing puzzle are
developed in the Silva Lopes’ quoted paper.
18 An analysis of several statistical indicators of the employment situation in the five regions of Continental
Portugal can be found in Pedroso et al. (2005).
19 According to Naumann and Simões, the analysis of data of the last Census (2001) allows us to conclude
that “about one quarter of the active salaried workers are practicing undeclared work”, a figure of
about 25% that is in consistence with the 22.1% estimate for the informal economic sector (Naumann
and Simões 2007).
20 Informal work is not included, for instance, in the statistics from the “Quadros de Pessoal” made
available by the Gabinete de Estratégia e Planeamento of the Ministery of Labour and Solidarity
(GEP_MTSS), since the information gathered refers only to enterprises legal, permanent workers.