Spanish Unemployment Drops at Highest Rate in 20 Years

Spanish Unemployment Drops at Highest Rate in 20 Years

Even though two-thirds of the jobs that were created in June were temporary positions, more and more open-ended jobs are being created.

Spanish unemployment is slowly turning a corner

Spain always sees a boom in jobs during the summer and this boom was bigger than ever with data showing the country welcomed 84,000 new employees to social security in June; representing the biggest single fall in unemployment the country has seen since 1997.

The Employment Ministry confirmed that 83,993 people registered with the state employment offices at the beginning of July. The current official unemployment figures now stand at 3.68 million in Spain.

Going on a month-by-month basis July saw 84,721 more people added to the payroll than in June. When you compare it to figures from last year there are 3% more people working this July than last July. Spain currently has 17.8 million people contributing to social security.

Many of these new jobs (around 51,000) were created in the hotel and catering sectors. This is confirmation of the trend that the reason Spain’s economy does so well during summer is because of the long summer tourism season. While many of these jobs are often temporary current trends suggest that many of these “summer jobs” could last longer and some may even become permanent positions.

Spanish daily El País are reporting that 7.6% of the new contracts signed in July, which is about 1.81 million, were open-ended. This means that the positions the contracts are for could last longer than the summer season. This might sound like a small figure but it is representative of a growing confidence in the hospitality sector; a confidence reinforced by the record number of tourists, higher spending per head, and the recovering economies of both Spain and Europe as a whole.

Marcel Jensen, an economy professor with the Autónoma University of Madrid said that the figures show how strongly the Spanish economy is doing right now and the cost of living in Spain is being kept low. More people are being employed each quarter. Marcel did warn that reforms would be needed to maintain this success in the long term though.

Such reforms, which have been introduced in the past few years to liberalise the employment sector of Spain, appear to have done a good job of boosting employment. Even so analysts and financial experts believe that the growth Spain has seen for the past two years will slow down within the next two years.

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.

Spanish Property Prices Up At Highest Rate In Over Eight Years

Spanish Property Prices Up At Highest Rate In Over Eight Years

Spanish property prices were up 6.3% leading up to March 2016. Spain may have experienced some frantic campaigning in the lead-up to the general election last week, but the political situation caused by the December general election seems to not have affected the revival of the property market.

This was further evidenced after the national statistics unit published data showing that not only is the market growing, but property prices are also up by 6.3% in the 12 months leading to the 31^st of March 2016. This is the eighth year in a row that prices have risen following the six year year-by-year fall in prices since 2007.

It’s made better news because this rise is being seen in every Spanish region. 6.3% is only the nationwide average with some areas, such as Madrid, seeing higher rises. Madrid saw the highest rises of 9.7%, the Balearics saw a rise of 8.8%, Catalunya saw a rise of 8.6% and the Canaries saw a rise of 5.9%.

Prices were up 1.5% over the rise seen in the previous quarter. The regional variations were as varied as the regional variations in overall price rise. Prices in Madrid were up 2.9% over the last quarter with a rise of 2.1% in the Canaries, a rise of 1.5% in both the Balearics and Galicia. However there was a 0.2% drop in property prices in La Rioja and a 0.4% drop in Castilla-La Mancha.
One of the biggest rises was properties for sale in the Costa del Sol as it continues its recovery.

Spanish Property Selling at Fastest Rate in Five Years

Spanish Property Selling at Fastest Rate in Five Years

Spain is back as property sales are on the move

2015 saw over 400,000 homes sold in Spain. This was the most houses sold in a year since 2010 and an overall growth of 9.8% over 2014.

The Ministry of Development published data showing that there were 401,281 transactions in 2015. 114,000 of these transactions took place in the fourth quarter of the year suggesting that 2016 will be a strong year for the property market and may even see more records broken.

While this number is a lot less than the number from 2006, when an unsustainable 1,000,000 homes were sold, this is definitely a strong growth that should be more sustainable. The Spanish property market in the Costa del Sol is definitely on the road to recovery after the global economic crisis.

The signs show that, despite the political troubles Spain is going through, the property market should grow even more and experience a distinct shift in nature. In 2006 roughly half of the homes that were sold were second hand homes. However in the last quarter of 2015 this figure was almost 88%. This suggests that the market is stabilising organically rather than because we’re seeing more homes built on the backs of credit.

There are currently more new homes in Spain than the country needs, even after the three year slump between 2007 and 2010 when barely any new property was built. This reveals that the market is likely full of new property that won’t be sold, but has a healthy mix of supply and demand for resold properties.

This is one of the best signs of a healthy property market that is ready to grow at a steady pace and now is the time to buy property in the Costa del Sol.

Spanish Properties Selling At Fastest Rate For Five Years

Spanish Properties Selling At Fastest Rate For Five Years

Spain’s property market seems to be recovering, as evidenced by the 401,000 homes sold last year. These sales provided Spain with the most houses sold in a single year since 2010 and saw a growth in sales of just under 10% over last year.

Spain is back and properties are moving again

The Ministry of Development released figures last week showing that 401,281 transactions occurred last year. A huge 114,000 of those happened in the fourth and final quarter. This great performance at the end of the year suggests that the Spanish property sales should continue in to 2016 and lead to higher sales figures this year.

While this 400,000 figure isn’t as high as the peak that happened in 2006 when one million homes were sold, it’s still a good, strong step in the right direction. These figures are also more sustainable than the 2006 figures and represent the market returning to a good place.

Outside of the political uncertainty that Spain is going through there are still plenty of signs that this growth in the property market will continue in to 2016. Half of all the homes sold in 2006 were second-hand. During the last quarter of 2015 almost 88% of homes sold in Spain were resale property, showing that the property market is moving rather than being pushed by the construction boom.

There is still too much supply in Spain for property right now even after the period of 2007-2010 when most of the construction sites in Spain remained inactive. While this does suggest that there might be some unsellable new properties in the market, the demand for second hand home is as stable as the supply.

This does show that the property market is becoming healthier. Current signs show that the prices are set to steadily rise with interest growing at a sustained rate.

So the future for the Costa del Sol and why to buy property in Spain looks bright. Contact us today for all our latest offeres!