Jobless figures in Spain fall below five million for first time in four years

NEW data on Thursday October 22 showed the number of unemployed people in Spain has fallen by 289,000 to reach a four-year low and come under the five million mark.

There are 4.85 million people without work in Spain according to the government’s National Statistics Institute which carried out an Active Population Survey.

Economy Minister Luis de Guindos spoke to radio station Cadena Ser and said, “It is without a doubt a positive number, encouraging, but it also shows that there is still a lot to do.”

Spain has the fourth largest economy in the eurozone and although the figures show a welcome recovery, the unemployment rate is second only to Greece in the eurozone.

The ruling Popular Party will point to the information in the report regarding over 182,000 more jobs during the third quarter of the year as they bid to keep power in the December elections.

One factor in the increase of jobs is temporary summer employment, which helped to create around 205,000 positions in the months from July to September.

It was a good summer for the regions of Catalonia and the Balearic Islands where 35,800 and 29,600 more people respectively went to work.  In Galicia, 29,100 more people found employment during the season.

The under-25s jobless rate remained high, however at 46.6 per cent. There were a total of 1.57 million families with all working-age members out of work.