Jobless total falls by 9,200 in Catalonia in third quarter

Unemployment fell by 9,200 people in Catalonia in the third quarter of this year, leaving the jobless rate at 10.8%, says the latest labor force survey from Spain's statistics institute.

The jobless rate is just below that for the same period last year, which at 10.6% reached the lowest it has fallen since the start of the financial crisis in 2008, when it was 8.8%.

Yet, the figures for the third quarter are the best this year, in which at total of 31,300 people have found work, which is only bettered in Spain as a whole by the Balearic Islands.

Catalonia's jobless rate is also below the general average for Spain, which stood at 13.9% at the end of the third quarter, with 16,200 fewer people unemployed.

The state statistics institute's labor force survey (EPA) is based on surveying a broad sample of 65,000 households, or some 200,000 individuals, in places all over Spain.