Governmental figures indicate unemployment spike in Spain for start of the year

SPAIN’s Government has revealed that unemployment has spiked during the first month of the year to reach the highest level since 2014.

The Ministry of Labour, Migrations and Social Security has detailed that the number of contributors to the Social Security system fell by 244,044 people, however, the overall number of contributors remained above 19 million.

Those who are registered as unemployed rose by 90,248 from December, making January the worst month in the workforce since January 2014 and resulting in a total of 3.25 million people without work.

Although alarming, the rate of unemployment does usually increase after the Christmas period as many seasonal jobs in retail and hospitality come to an end as well as contracts signed for one natural year.

The figures had been released on the same day that the Cabinet held their weekly meeting, which tied into issues such as the now approved minimum salary which is set at €950 a month. In the upcoming meetings, ministers are also expected to go ahead with their plans to give a 2% salary increase to civil servants and a 0.9% raise to pensions.

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Written by

Isha Sesay

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