April sees slight monthly drop in unemployment but increase on last year

There were 8,715 fewer people registered as unemployed in Catalonia in April compared to March, according to data released by the Spanish Ministry of Labour and Social Economy on Tuesday. 

All in all, there were a total of 497,185 people without work, meaning the second consecutive monthly drop, and a fall of 1.72%.

Despite the monthly drop in unemployment, there are still 29,375 more job seekers in the territory compared to April 2020, a rise of 6.28%.

These figures do not include workers who are currently temporarily laid off due to the pandemic and benefiting from the government's subsidy scheme (ERTO). 

These numbers are also based on the number of people registered with the social services, but unemployment in Catalonia is also calculated by Spain's quarterly labour force survey (EPA).

The most recent data for jobless workers corresponding to this method was released at the end of April and accounts for the first three months of 2021, which indicates unemployment dropped to 12.9%, with 499,700 Catalans finding themselves without work.

Unemployment fell the most in Girona, where the number of people without work fell by 982 compared to March (-1.98%). 

A 1.7% month-on-month drop was seen in Barcelona, with 6,268 fewer unemployed workers, with the total now standing at 360,969.

Tarragona saw the figure decrease by 1.76%, with 1,086 fewer registered with the social services, and a total of 60,494. 

In Lleida, the fall in unemployment wasn’t as pronounced. In April, 27,074 were registered as unemployed, 1.38% less than March meaning a drop of 379 workers.

Across Spain, unemployment fell by 39,012 people in April (-1%), but compared to last year there are 79,425 more people without jobs (+2.07%). Spain closed the month of April with more than 3.9 million people unemployed.