Great News for the Spanish Economy; Unemployment Falls by 180,000

Great News for the Spanish Economy; Unemployment Falls by 180,000

Jobs continue to be created 

Over 182,000 jobs were created in Spain during the third quarter of last year between July 1^st and September 30^th, bringing down the percentage of unemployed people to 4.66% and bringing the total number of unemployed people to 3.73 million; the lowest figure since 2008.

The third quarter has always been the strongest time for job creation in the country as it includes the busy summer period where plenty of seasonal jobs are created. However, when viewed over a long period of time the trend becomes very encouraging; the third quarter has been a booster for Spanish employment figures for five years running now, and the performance last year follows a strong second quarter that saw Spanish total unemployment drop below four million for the first time since 2009.

The data comes from the Active Population Survey (EPA) published by the government. The EPA registers not just unemployed people that report to their local employment office, but also the jobless people that aren’t registered for whatever reason. This means that the figures in the EPA are higher than other sources.

Even so, the data shows that the unemployment rate for Spain has fallen to 16.38%, which is about 2.5% lower than last year and continues the positive trend of an increase in job security, growth and financial stability of households and businesses.

Spanish Unemployment Falls at Fastest Rate in Ten Years

Spanish Unemployment Falls at Fastest Rate in Ten Years

The summer is helping to push unemployment down

Summer always brings with it a boost to Spanish employment. Millions of people flock to the country over the summer and that means more work needs to be done and more people are needed to do it.

This year the annual boost in employment has been the biggest the country has seen for a long time. Data from the Labour Ministry of Spain shows that unemployed dropped at the highest rate in ten years over June. This suggests that the economic recovery Spain has seen is staying strong.

Spain still has a bit of reputation for being a place without jobs for some of Europe. While there is still too much youth unemployment in general unemployment has continued to drop for the past few years.

The June figures show that jobless claims went down 124,349 that much. So now the total of unemployed people in Spain is roughly 3.76 million. Spain also saw almost 100,000 new social security registrations in June so now there are around 17,760,271 people employed in Spain; the highest for over seven years.

Most of these jobs were created by the bumper summer season. While some of these jobs are seasonal there are plenty of non-tourism related jobs. The El Pais newspaper shows nearly 40,000 people were hired in the hospitality trade in June, which may be classed as seasonal jobs. The retail sector saw nearly 28,000 new hires, with nearly 19,000 in administrative activities, 14,000 hired in manufacturing, and roughly 11,500 people hired in the construction sector.

No matter how you look at it Spanish industries are creating thousands of jobs a month which is great news for the economy and keeps the cost of living down in spain.