Jobless rate dips

SPAIN’s unemployed rate has dipped below the 24 per cent mark for the first time since 2011.

It is a sign that economic recovery is gathering force, but with the jobless figure standing at 5.4 million there is a long way to go before a more sustainable level of employment is reached.

The latest figures from the Spanish government show that in the July to September period the unemployment rate fell to 23.67 per cent. It had stood at 24.47 per cent in the previous quarter.

In real terms it meant that 195,000 people fewer people were looking for work. Most of the jobs created were in services, as was to be expected in the summer holiday season. The better news was that jobs were also created in the manufacturing and construction sectors after years of mainly job losses. That, said the government, showed that economic recovery was gathering pace.

The government has forecast that the economy will have grown 1.3 per cent during 2014, and that unemployment will continue to fall to 22.2 per cent by the end of 2015.