Spain´s unemployment rate fell to 13.92% in the third quarter, compared to the estimated 13.75% and 14.02% in the previous quarter. According to the Active Population Survey (EPA) published on Thursday by the National Statistics Institute (INE), unemployment fell by 16,200 persons in the third quarter, 5% less than in the previous quarter, leaving a total of 3,214,400 unemployed.
This fall in unemployment is less than that registered in all the third quarters in the last seven year. You have to go back to the third quarter of 2012 to find worse data, when unemployment increased by 93,200.
Despite this, the unemployment rate fell a tenth in the third quarter, to 13.92%, which means it fell below 14% for the first time in 10 years, since the fourth quarter in 2008. The activity rate fell slightly, to 58.72%, after the number of active people rose between July and September (+0.2%).
64,900 jobs were created in the third quarter of the year, 0.3% more than the previous quarter, which leaves the total number of people in work at 19,873.300, its highest level in 11 years. However, this increase in jobs is the lowest in a third quarter since 2013, when jobs also increased by 69,400.
The job creation registered in the third quarter was shared almost equally between the private sector, which created 35,200 jobs (+0.2%), and the public sector, which created 34,200 jobs (+1%) compared to the previous quarter. The number of salaried workers rose by 101,700 (+0.6%) between July and September, with an increase of salaried workers with temporary contracts of 76,600 (+1.7%), compared to an increase of 25,100 in salaried workers with fixed contracts (0.2%).
