Unemployment similarities among portuguese regions

The regional distribution of the unemployed individual characteristics is of core importance for the development of public policies that can fight the unemployment phenomenon, especially in times of crises. The data mining cluster methodology allows finding groups of regional areas that share the same characteristics for the register unemployed and, therefore, helps in a better understanding of the problem and possible solutions. Preliminary results for the Portuguese regions show a clear division of the territory among four regions – north and south and urban and rural areas of the country – concerning individual characteristics such the gender, age, education or unemployment duration. These results have policy consequences.

Unemployment similarities among portuguese regions - a cluster analysis approach Conference Paper