MADRID – The number of people registering as jobless in Spain fell by a record 5.47% in July from the previous month, labour ministry data showed on Tuesday, as eased COVID-19 restrictions spurred a recovery in hiring despite rising infections.
The data marks the fifth consecutive month of falling jobless figures and the sharpest one-month reduction since the series began in 1996, breaking the previous two months’ records, the ministry said.
Labour Minister Yolanda Diaz said the data demonstrated that government support measures were working and an economic recovery was now in sight.
“This great collective effort allows us today to speak of promising figures, but behind the unemployment data, however, there are people, families, lives,” she tweeted according to Reuters.
With 3.41 million people out of work compared with 3.01 million in July 2019, employment has yet to recover its pre-pandemic levels.
Employment rose across all sectors, with the hard-hid services industry accounting for the bulk of the hiring, likely a result of the arrival of the summer tourism season.
Separately on Tuesday, the National Statistics Institute said the number of foreign tourists visiting Spain jumped almost ten times to 2.2 million in June from a year ago, although it was still just a quarter of its June 2019 levels.
Rising vaccination rates and looser COVID-19 restrictions have galvanised Spain’s economy in recent months, leading second quarter output to increase by a better-than-expected 2.8% in the second quarter.
Spain gained 133,049 jobs in July, in the third consecutive month of net job creation, while the number of people supported by a national furlough scheme fell by 116,439 from the previous month to 331,486 people, 90% less than during the pandemic’s peak in May 2020.
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