Spain's unemployment rate continues its downward trend, boosted by tourism and robust GDP growth.
ADVERTISEMENTThe unemployment rate in Spain fell by 1.02 percentage points to 11.27% in the second quarter of this year, the National Statistics Institute announced on Friday.
This follows a slight uptick seen in the previous quarter, although confirms a longer pattern of falling unemployment.
Compared to the previous three months, the number of unemployed people decreased by 222,600 this quarter to 2,755,300.
The female unemployment rate fell by 1.12 percentage points – to 12.61% – and the male rate by 0.93% – to 10.08%.
The services sector saw the largest decrease in the number of job seekers, with 190,500 fewer people out of work.
Smaller declines were also seen in the construction industry, and the industrial and agricultural sectors.
The number of employed individuals, meanwhile, increased by 434,700 during the quarter and stood at 21,684,700.
Full-time employment increased, while part-time employment remained virtually unchanged.
"We are heading in the right direction," Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on X.
"Above the noise from the right and the far-right, Spain is moving forward, breaking employment records. Almost 21.7 million people in employment. A new all-time high. We will continue to work to make this the term of full employment."
The decline in Spain's unemployment rate was supported by the end of COVID-19 restrictions, which boosted the tourism sector in the country.
Even so, Spain has one of the highest rates of job seekers in the eurozone.
Miguel Cardoso Lecourtois, Chief Economist for Spain at BBVA Research, told Euronews that the most recent fall in unemployment is "due to seasonality", as "the second quarter brings an acceleration in job creation as tourism activity progressively improves".
"Job creation will be contingent on the capacity of the tourism sector to continue to grow," he added.
Challenges here, he specified, include "bureaucracy" and "higher housing prices", "making it it difficult for investment to increase the number of rooms".
ADVERTISEMENTAdded to this, Spain has recently seen a wave of protests against mass tourism, despite the economic advantages the sector brings to the county.
Protestors, notably in the Canary Islands, Mallorca, and Barcelona, are calling for a curb on visitors, which they say is needed to preserve their quality of life.
The health of the job market is also dependent on growth in the Spanish economy, as booming businesses require more staff.
In the first quarter of the year, GDP grew by 0.8% compared with the previous three months.
ADVERTISEMENTThe year-on-year GDP variation was 2.5%, compared to 2.1% in the previous quarter.
The Spanish economy showed growth "well above" that seen in the eurozone last year, KPMG noted last month, adding that the "strong performance continued in the first months of this year".
"Unemployment will continue to decrease as economic growth will be relatively strong in 2024 and 2025, but the sluggish growth in productivity and the gradual increase in real wages will moderate the unemployment reduction."
