The number of employees declared in February by the group of 31,914 companies applying for the lay-off corresponds to a universe of 552 thousand workers, said the Ministry of Labor, Solidarity and Social Security (MTSSS), in a statement sent to Lusa agency.

The majority of companies applying for support work in the areas of accommodation and catering, vehicle repair and manufacturing, it is specified in the document, which also states that the majority of orders come from micro companies, with 10 or less workers (about 74 %), and small companies, with less than 50 workers (about 20%).

Taking into account the geographic areas, the majority of orders come in Lisbon and Porto, which together add up to almost 14 thousand, the rest being divided by Braga, Aveiro and Faro.

The simplified lay-off mechanism - adopted in the exceptional context of the covid-19 pandemic, which has already caused 266 deaths and infected more than ten thousand people in Portugal - supports companies in exchange for not making redundancies.

In March, indicated the MTSSS, 59 collective dismissal processes were communicated (compared to the 36 declared in February), covering 843 workers.

In the same statement, the MTSSS informs that the official unemployment figures for March will be known on April 20, adding that "preliminary data point to a marginal increase", compared to February data, with "more than 28 thousand people unemployed ”, increasing the total number to around 321 thousand unemployed people.