MADRID, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) — According to data published by the country’s Ministry of Labour and Social Economy on Wednesday, the number of unemployed people in Spain decreased by 130,197 last year.
The data revealed that a total of 2,707,456 people are currently unemployed in Spain, showing a 4.59 percent decrease over the past 12 months. These are the best figures for the beginning of the year since 2007.
The past year saw a decrease in unemployment across all sectors of the economy, with 81,333 fewer unemployed people in the service sector, 17,731 in industry, 15,483 in construction, and 13,339 in agriculture.
There are now 1,616,973 women registered as unemployed in Spain, compared to 1,090,483 men, as per the data.
Additionally, 539,740 new jobs were created in Spain in 2023, bringing the total number of people registered as working by Spain’s Social Security system to 20,836,010.
Secretary of State for Labor Joaquin Perez Rey expressed his satisfaction with the data in a press conference on Wednesday morning.
He pointed out, “It’s the lowest total of people out of work in the last 16 years, with the number of women at the lowest level since 2008 and with 15 million workers on indefinite contracts.”
Perez Rey added, “This shows that when there is a commitment to govern for the majority and the government takes brave decisions, you can change a labor market that until recently was a source of suffering and which now is beginning to show stability.”
However, despite the positive news, there are some concerning signals for the future in the data. The decrease in unemployment in December was 27,375, the smallest reduction in the last 10 years (with the exception of 2020 which was affected by the pandemic), indicating a possible slowdown in 2024.
