Unemployment eases in Spain
May 5th, 2011 - 11:38 am ICT by IANSMadrid, May 5 (IANS/EFE) The ranks of the unemployed in Spain shrank by 64,309 last month to nearly 4.27 million, the labour ministry said Wednesday.
April’s decline in joblessness followed three consecutive months of increases.
Unemployment in Spain’s public sector grew by 126,935 people over the 12 months ending April 30, while the number of new employment contracts signed last month, 1.07 million, was down 1.06 percent compared with April 2010.
Among immigrants, who now make up around 12 percent of Spain’s 47 million residents, the number of unemployed people fell last month by 11,716 to 631,177.
Even so, the total of jobless immigrants was up by 18,258 since April 2010.
Last month’s decline in unemployment was the largest for April since 2006, said Spain’s secretary of state for employment, Mari Luz Rodriguez.
Registration with Social Security - often used as a proxy measure of employment - climbed in March by 81,447, the second consecutive monthly increase after eight straight months of declines, but remains almost 1 percent below the level of a year ago.
Spain’s unemployment rate stands at 21.29 percent, the highest in the 27-member European Union, as the Iberian nation struggles to emerge from the recession and the collapse of a long-building real estate bubble.
–IANS/EFE
rd
- Spain's jobless ranks swell to 4.3 mn - Apr 05, 2011
- Unemployment rises in Spain - Apr 04, 2012
- Joblessness climbs in Spain - Dec 03, 2010
- More than five mn out of work in Spain - Jan 28, 2012
- No comfort for Spain in latest employment data - Nov 04, 2011
- Spanish jobless rate climbs above 24 percent - Apr 28, 2012
- Spanish economy back in recession - Apr 24, 2012
- Spain sells 3.2 bn euros in bonds at higher rates - Apr 18, 2012
- US jobless claims at four-year low - Mar 23, 2012
- New jobless claims in US at lowest level in nine months - Dec 09, 2011
- US jobless claims at lowest level in four years - Feb 17, 2012
- Over 4.5 mn jobless in Spain - Oct 30, 2010
- Personal incomes, spending rise in the US - Mar 29, 2011
- Spanish economy expected to shrink in 2012 - Jan 24, 2012
- Foreign firms retain business confidence in Spain - Jul 16, 2010
Tags: 12 months, collapse, decline, declines, efe, employment contracts, european union, iberian nation, immigrants, joblessness, labour ministry, madrid, proxy measure, public sector, real estate bubble, recession, secretary of state, social security, spain, unemployment rate