Spanish unemployment total down by 111,000 in May

The number of people registered as unemployed in Spain continued to fall in May, with the figure dropping by 111,908 during the month to reach 3,461,128.

This represents a fall of 3.1% in May alone, and over the last twelve months the total has dropped by an impressive 11.1%, or over 430,000 in absolute terms. While critics and opponents of the present government will doubtless point out that salaries and job security are not necessarily rising, that May is almost always a good month for employment figures in this country, and that the continuing decrease in unemployment is from the unacceptably high levels which were reached during the economic crisis, the fact is that the total is now almost 1.5 million lower than it was in May 2013.

During May the jobless totals fell in all 17 of Spain’s regions, most sharply in the Balearic Islands (by 14.2%, no doubt due in part to the onset of the peak tourist season), Aragón (6.5%), Extremadura (5%) and La Rioja (4.9%). At the same time, over the course of the last 12 months the most significant decreases have been those recorded in Aragón (17.2%), the Balearics (17.1%), Catalunya (12.9%) and Andaluciaa (12.3%).

It should be remembered that the monthly figures produced by the Ministry of Employment are always lower than those in the quarterly Active Population Survey (EPA), because the latter include those who are unemployed but for one reason or another are not registered as such at their local employment offices. However, the latest EPA for the first quarter of 2017 also showed a decrease of 11.2%, the latest total being 4.25 million.