The number of unemployed people registered with Spain’s Employment Office fell by 124,349 in June from May to 3.767.054. The decline in relative terms was 3.2% and is the second largest in historical series, only beaten by the fall recorded in June 2013.
The average number of employed people signed on with the Social Security rose 1.13% to 17.661.840 in May from April, according to data released by the Employment and Social Security Ministry. Meanwhile, the number of jobless fell by 119,768 people in May from the previous month, standing at below 4 million for the first time in six years.
MADRID | The Corner | Ahead of INE’s official release of Q2 growth, Bank of Spain (BdE) published on Wednesday its estimate in its economic bulletin. The central bank estimates that economic activity in Q2 accelerated to 0.5% q/q from 0.4% q/q in Q1, driven by positive contributions from both domestic and external demand. BdE has also revised upwards its annual growth projections for 2014 and 2015 to 1.3% and 2%. These estimates coincide with ours, both for Q2 14 and for 2014-15, analysts at Barclays point out.
MADRID | By Fernando G. Urbaneja | Both the evolution of the GDP and employment in 2Q confirm that the Spanish recovery has arrived: it’s a weak, subject to uncertainty one, but undeniable. Official data released on Thursday were above expectations: 400,000 new employed, 310,000 less unemployed and a crucial piece of data: nearly 100,000 more occupied Spaniards. It’s the best data of the past 26 quarters, since mid-2007. But we should not forget the poor-quality contracts nor the 2 million long-duration jobless.
MADRID | By Julia Pastor and Fernando G. Urbaneja | 1,949 unemployed less in Spain in February. Agreed that it is just a drop in the ocean of almost 6 million of jobless Spanish people, but the figure symbolizes an improvement. A tiny one, but positive at last. For the first time in four years, February’s affiliation to social security increased in 40,000 people, which means reaching a yearly positive rate of 0.4%. If we take a look at the number of affiliated, though, it makes a total of 16.12 million in Spain’s labour market, which surprisingly is one of the worst data in all XXI century.
MADRID | By Fernando G.Urbaneja | With no possibility to devaluate currency, 3.7 million jobs have dissapeared in Spain’s society. This data should force Spanish political leaders as well as population to start a long and profound debate.
Highly educated, they used to have steady jobs and decent wages… until now. The so-called ‘insiders’ are the new victims of Spain’s unemployment drama, which affects more than 27% of the population. Prospects for 2013 are gloomy, since credit is not flowing, SMEs are choking and consumption remains paralyzed. Have the labor reform and all sacrifices been worth it?