According to the OECD, in the long run, sharp minimum wage increases and changes to labour laws will lead to "inefficiently high labour costs".

For the Paris-based multilateral organisation, "it is also important to avoid reversing past labour market reforms, which could compromise a sustainable recovery."

These considerations are contained in the section dedicated to Portugal of the OECD economic forecasts, which point to a growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 4.8 percent, 5.8 percent and 2.8 percent in 2021, 2022 and 2023, respectively.

The organisation led by Australian Mathias Cormann expects "significant job losses" in some sectors of the Portuguese economy, as "in other sectors vacancies are increasing, which cannot be easily filled due to discrepancies between jobs and qualifications".

"This reallocation of jobs could be facilitated by strengthening public employment services and training and requalification programmes", suggests the OECD.

As for employment, it will "increase slowly, as many jobs have been protected by job retention systems, and companies have responded by increasing working hours, at least initially".

The OECD forecasts did not include measures such as adjustments to IRS and "the increase in salaries in public administration", after the rejection of the Government's proposal for the State Budget for 2022.

The reversal of some of the labour legislation, as well as the increase in the minimum wage to values ​​above those proposed by the Government (€705 in 2022), were at the centre of the debate that led to the rejection of the proposed state budget.