Phoenix 24
The labor market is rewarding digital skills, healthcare expertise and industrial specialization.
Lisbon
Portugal’s technology sector continues to offer some of the country’s strongest salaries and fastest employment growth, according to the 2026 and 2027 Salary Trends Study. Information technology remains the highest paying major field, with average annual salaries generally ranging from €40,000 to €55,000.
Employment in information and communications reached approximately 237,200 people in the second quarter of 2026, representing about 4.4 percent of Portugal’s workforce. That figure was 13.2 percent higher than a year earlier, equivalent to an increase of 27,600 jobs. Demand is especially strong for specialists in cloud computing and cybersecurity, data analytics, business intelligence, artificial intelligence, software development, enterprise applications and IT management.
Life sciences and healthcare form another major employment engine. Human health and social support activities employ around 567,700 people, roughly 10.5 percent of total employment. The sector added more than 43,000 jobs over the previous year. Pharmaceutical and research roles can offer average annual salaries between €35,000 and €60,000, while healthcare delivery positions typically range from €30,000 to €46,000.
Engineering and industry remain especially important because of their scale. Industrial activities employ more than 1.33 million people, close to one quarter of Portugal’s workforce. Salaries generally range from €33,500 to €49,500, with companies actively seeking construction managers, automation and robotics engineers, product development specialists, production supervisors and supply chain professionals.
Banking and insurance also remain comparatively well paid, with average compensation between €35,000 and €50,000. The sector employs around 118,700 people and has continued expanding through demand for commercial managers, compliance officers, corporate finance analysts, underwriters and private bankers.
Marketing and sales offer lower average salary ranges, although digital specialization remains valuable. Commercial roles generally fall between €23,000 and €39,500, while marketing positions range from €26,000 to €36,500. Demand increasingly favors CRM specialists, performance marketing managers, customer experience professionals and technically oriented sales roles.
The pattern across Portugal is increasingly clear. The strongest opportunities are concentrating where technical complexity, regulation, digital transformation and specialized knowledge intersect.
For workers, the message is not simply that technology pays more. It is that the Portuguese labor market is assigning greater value to skills that combine advanced technical capability with business, healthcare or industrial expertise.
Information that anticipates futures.