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Unemployment in Spain falls by 9.54 pct during 2016

Xinhua, January 4, 2017 Adjust font size:

The number of unemployed people in Spain fell by 390,534 to 3,702,974 in 2016, a reduction of 9.54 percent, according to numbers published by the Spanish employment ministry on Wednesday.

The drop is the highest in Spain since 1996 in absolute terms and since 1999 in relative terms and is the fourth year in row that the number of people out of work has fallen, following falls of 147,385 in 2013, 253,627 in 2014, and 354,203 in 2015.

December saw unemployment reduced by 86,849, thanks mainly to the number of short-term contracts signed over the Christmas period.

Jobs were created in all sectors of the economy, especially in the construction industry, but the improvement was most noticeable in the service sector, which again capitalized on a record year for tourist numbers in Spain.

There was an imbalance in the reduction of unemployment between men and women, and the majority of new jobs created were temporary positions: a total of 19,978,954 new contracts were signed in 2016, of which only 1,713,262 (8.58 percent) were for permanent jobs.

This has led labor unions to criticize what they view as the precarious nature of the majority of new jobs created in Spain. Endit