Unemployment in Catalonia drops by 3.19% in May

In the rest of Spain, unemployment has decreased 1.84% in the last month. However, both Catalan and Spanish figures remain at highest rates of the last decade: about 575,000 Catalans are unemployed. In overall Spain, about 4.07 million people are jobless.

Mario Rubio

First published: June 3, 2010 01:36 PM

Madrid (CNA) .- The number of jobless Catalans dropped this month by 18,920 people and set the new overall unemployment rate at 574,736 people. This figure is 3.19% less than the one registered in April, which confirms that the decline started a month ago. After a ten-month streak of increasing unemployment and a total of 600,000 people left jobless, Catalonia has reduced its unemployment figures for the second consecutive month. At a Spanish level, unemployment has decreased by 76,223, setting the new rate at 4,066,202, a 1.84% decrease compared to the previous month. The industry sector is leading the recovery and more contracts are being signed, stresses the Catalan Government. The Government is confident that Catalonia will be the first Spanish autonomous community to come out from the crisis.

Even though unemployment in Catalonia has decreased by 3.19% in May, the number of jobseekers is still well above the recorded rates for May 2009, according to data from the Spanish Ministry of Labour. Thus, in the last twelve months the number of unemployed has increased by 69,695 people, a 13.8% annual growth rate. However, May 2010 has been the second month of a consecutive decrease. The corresponding figure for April also registered a drop of 10,382 people, representing a 1.72% decrease in comparison to the month of March.

In gender terms, 53% of the total number of unemployed in May were men and 47% were women. The age variable shows that there are currently 50,745 people under 25 seeking employment, almost 9% of the total volume of unemployed. In this age bracket, slightly more than half the unemployed,29,527 people, were men and 21,218 were women.

Unemployment also showed an important decrease with regard to the foreign population, slightly higher even than the Catalan average drop. In May, 4,534 less foreigners were registered on unemployment lists, a reduction of 3.39% compared to the previous month, setting the total unemployment rate for this group at 129,299 people, 22.5% of the total number of unemployed. In interannual terms though, the number of unemployed foreigners has increased by 23.2% compared to May 2009.

The service sector and industry lead recovery

Once again the service sector is leading the employment recovery. The number of unemployed in the tourism, catering and the transport sectors dropped in May by 11,814 people, coinciding with pre-summer season contracts. In the industry sector, 3,467 jobs have been recovered, a figure similar to the one in construction, where this month the number of unemployed also decreased by 3,170 people. Despite these positive statistics, the number of unemployed in these sectors remains high. In April, the services sector recorded 332,126 jobseekers, the industry a further 103,083 unemployed, and the construction sector numbered to 101,091 people. Finally, unemployment in the agricultural sector stands at 8,396 people in May.

Unemployment down by 1,84% in Spain

In the whole of Spain, unemployment came down by 76,223 people, setting the total figure at 4,066,202 jobless. In annual terms, though, the jobseeker lists continued to increase by 446,063 people compared to May 2009, for a interannual increase of 12.32%. In the case of Catalonia, unemployment also dropped for the second consecutive month. Catalonia leads the employment recovery ranking with 18,920 fewer people registered unemployed, followed by Andalusia, where there were 10,849 fewer jobseekers. Regarding the overall unemployment rate, the order is reversed. Andalusia tops the list with a total of 868,458 unemployed, followed by Catalonia, with 574,736 people without a job, and Valencia and Madrid with 511,014 and 474,661 unemployed, respectively.

Unemployment Recovery Data Ministry Of Labour Work