After years of high increase, the unemployment in Portugal has been in a continuous falling trend since the third quarter of 2014, decreasing from a peak of 17.7% achieved in the early 2013 to a rate of 11.9% in the second quarter of 2015. However, it is high still high compared with what was the normal average Portuguese unemployment rate in the past. In the second quarter of 2008 the unemployment rate was 7.3%, but the rate immediately rose the following period. By December 2009, unemployment had surpassed the 10% mark nationwide in the wake of worldwide events, by 2010, the rate was around 11% and in 2011 it was above 12%.[citation needed] The first quarter of 2013 signified a new unemployment rate record for Portugal, as it reached 17.7%— up from 17% in the previous quarter — and the Government has predicted an 18.5% unemployment rate in 2014. However, in the third quarter of the same year, it has surprisingly declined to a rate of 15.6%. From then on, the unemployment downtrend continued, declining to 13.9% in the second semester of 2014 and to 11.9% in the second quarter of 2015.