Where are salaries and job opportunities highest in Portugal?

Portugal's technology sector is experiencing rapid job growth and offering some of the country's highest salaries. Randstad's 2026/2027 Salary Trends Study reveals that employment in the information and communication sector grew by 27,600 year-on-year in the second quarter of 2026. Salaries for IT roles in this sector range from €40,000 to €55,000 annually.

The sector employs 237,200 people, accounting for about 4.4% of Portugal's workforce. Key areas in demand by companies include cloud and security, data analytics, BI and AI, software development, business applications, and IT management. Meanwhile, the life sciences and healthcare sector employs 567,700 people, representing around 10.5% of the workforce. Salaries in this sector vary from €30,000 to €46,000 gross per annum, with demand for nurses, doctors, multi-therapy technicians, pharmacy technicians, and pharmacists.

Engineering and industry, another growing sector, employs 1,333,700 people, making up around 24.7% of Portugal's workforce. Jobs in this field include site managers, automation and robotics engineers, product development engineers, and production supervisors. Average salaries in this sector range from €33,500 to €49,500 gross per annum.

In banking and insurance, average salaries range from €35,000 to €50,000 gross per annum, with a workforce of 118,700 people, representing 2.2% of the total workforce. The most sought-after roles include business manager, compliance officer, corporate finance analyst, underwriter, and private banker. Lastly, the finance, HR, and legal services sector employs 488,100 people, representing around 9% of the national total.

Salaries in this sector range from €24,000 to €33,500 gross per annum, with demand for controllers, reporting specialists, chartered accountants, HR analysts, and compliance officers.