In the last two decades, from 2005 until the end of this January, the Portuguese economy recorded almost 600 business events announced as being of relevant size, involving new investments, expansion of existing activities, but also reduction in the scale of business operations, closures/bankruptcies of companies, either because they closed permanently, or because there were relocations.
According to a survey carried out by DN/Dinheiro Vivo of the extensive Eurofound database on Portugalthe European Union agency that monitors announcements of larger and more publicized cases of corporate “restructuring”, the aforementioned expansion or slimming processes bring results in terms of employment.
In these two decades analyzed, the overall balance is positive: according to the announcements, almost 130,000 jobs were created or there was an intention to create, a number that more than compensates for the almost 60,000 jobs destroyed (the majority via collective redundancies announced by companies and reported by the media over the years).
Result: 70 thousand jobs were created, in net terms, following these announcements and records compiled by Eurofound.
Unsurprisingly, three years stand out as the most negative in terms of net job creation (when job losses exceed job gains).
Em 2005the (net) loss amounted to 3428 jobs, a reflection, among other factors, of the accession of China and other Asian powers to the World Trade Organization in 2001, a country that, since then, has flooded Portugal and so many European economies with products with lower added value, but much cheaper.
It destroyed many textile industries in Portugal, especially in the north of the country, for example.
Other sectors followed in contention, such as the automobile, which faced several waves of relocations to Asia and Eastern Europe, the same Eurofound records show.
Another year of bad memory was 2011, the first of the troika’s adjustment and austerity programapplied by the government of the time (PSD-CDS), following the country’s bankruptcy and the euro crisis. Almost a thousand jobs were lost between gains and layoffs.
After, 2020, the first year of the pandemic, in which heavy containment measures were imposed on company activities and the movement of people. The annual balance of “restructuring” was 550 fewer jobs.
According to data from the European agency, in these 20 years of observations, of the 60 thousand jobs destroyed, more than half resulted from “internal restructuring”, companies that continued, but drastically reduced their size. The adoption of new technologies that replaced human labor is one of the main reasons given.
Around five thousand jobs disappeared because companies simply left Portugal.
The second biggest reason was the dismissal and definitive closure. The bill for closures and bankruptcies cost around 19,000 jobs.
But, as mentioned, Portugal has been a net gainer in jobs over the last 20 years. According to announcements made throughout this period, around 130 thousand jobs will have been created (in gross terms). The overwhelming majority were “business expansions”, Eurofound shows.
The attraction of foreign investments, public tax incentive programs for projects considered priority and the reinforcement of some companies already installed in the country since the 90s (see the case of Autoeuropa, the Volkswagen factory in Palmela) generated positive results in the job market.
Four cases
The Eurofound database is broad and extensive in detail. Of the almost 600 registered cases, it is possible to highlight some due to their interest and relevance to the Portuguese economy.
One of the most recent arises in the activity of high-performance data centers, which are part of global internet interconnection chains and which already feed the processing power of artificial intelligence.
CTS, a Swiss-based multinational specializing in data centersbecame one of the symbols of the new industrial cycle in Sines.
This group has set up an ecosystem in Portugal with 11 companies dedicated to the engineering, construction and operation of data centers — a strategic position favored by submarine cables, abundant renewable energy and the proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, used as a natural means of cooling, a crucial aspect to stabilize the performance of powerful servers.
In 2025, the company announced an expansion plan that foresees more than 2,000 new jobs in the short term, as part of a more comprehensive plan valued at 12 billion euros in digital projects in the Sines region, in Alentejo.
Official sources detail that CTS already has factories and production centers in Viana do Castelo, Vila Nova de Cerveira, Leiria, Braga, Porto, Sines, Lisbon and Elvas, integrating the entire data center value chain. In addition to the direct impact on jobs, the company states that hundreds have already been created since 2024 in engineering, construction, software and services for its data centers.
The oldest, from 2007, is the project of LOGZ, which was closely linked to investment in the high-speed railway (TGV), abandoned due to lack of money during the crisis years, but recovered by the last two governments (PS and PSD-CDS).
LOGZ – Atlantic Hub appears as a private logistics megaproject installed in Poceirão, designed to serve the so-called “strategic triangle” that connects the ports of Lisbon, Setúbal and Sines. The platform integrates storage, cargo consolidation and direct connection to road and rail routes.
The project predicted, in 2007, the creation of five thousand direct jobs and seven thousand indirect jobs, thus becoming one of the biggest private investments ever in logistics in Portugal.
The case gains new relevance in the context of 2024‑2026 because Sines has returned to the spotlight as the country’s great “Atlantic hub” for data centers, energy and global supply chains.
a giant National Energy Networks (REN)the concessionaire responsible for the country’s two main energy infrastructures – the National Electricity Transmission Network (RNT) and the National Natural Gas Transmission Network (RNTGN) – was privatized during the troika years and partially sold to China in a 50-year concession contract.
REN owns the very high voltage lines, the interconnections with Spain, the Sines LNG terminal and manages the country’s underground gas storage.
The company plays a critical role in the security and continuity of service, in a period in which Portugal records successive records in electricity consumption (2025-2026) and tries to accelerate its energy transition.
In 2009, he announced a business expansion that involved the creation of two thousand jobs. It continues to expand. According to Eurofound, it is characterized by lower labor turnover, in a sector that creates significant indirect economic impacts and highly qualified employment in engineering, operations and cybersecurity.
One of the negative cases in this small list is that of the group Yazaki Jumpa Japanese multinational present in Portugal since the mid-1980s. It is a manufacturer of wiring and electrical systems for the automotive industry, but today it appears as one of the most striking cases of structural job loss in the sector.
The company was, in the 80s and 90s, one of the largest industrial employers in Portugal (it had more than eight thousand workers in Gaia and Ovar), but suffered successive relocations to Eastern Europe and North Africa.
Between 2025 and January 2026, the Ovar unit has two collective dismissal processes, the first targeting 364 workers (March to July 2025) and then another 163, with immediate effect (January 2026).
The company justifies the measure with “increasing competitive pressure” and the collapse of demand for electrical components for electric vehicles in Europe — a sector affected by strong Chinese and American competition.
In light of Eurofound data, it is one of the most negative cases since last year, integrating the top 20 of the biggest net destroyers of jobs.
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