Jobless total in Catalonia up 1.4% in January

The jobless total in Catalonia went up by 5,558 people to 393,682 in January, an increase in the unemployment rate of 1.43%, said the state labor ministry on Tuesday.

It is also more than in January 2019, when an extra 5,469 people were out of work, although less than in January 2015, when the number hit a high of 6,821.

The figures also contrast with the overall unemployment rate for 2019, which fell to 10.45%, the lowest figure since the third term of 2008, when the global financial crisis struck.

Meanwhile, in Spain as a whole, the total number of people in need of a job in January went up by 90,248 to 3,253,853, a 2.85% rise on the previous month.

Biggest rise in Barcelona

In Catalonia, the largest rise was in the Barcelona area, with an extra 2,973 (+1.05%) people out of work, taking the total number of unemployed people in the area to 285,305.

In Tarragona, in the south, the rise was 1,372 people (+2.88%), with an extra 724 (+3.55%) in the western province of Lleida, and another 489 (+1.30%) in Girona, in the north.

Of the more than 393,000 people looking for work in Catalonia in January, some 172,178 were men and 221,504 were women.

However, among the 28,281 unemployed people under the age of 25, some 15,257 were men and 13,024 were women.

Slight upswing in construction sector

The construction sector was the only one that saw a fall in the number of jobless workers (542 fewer), with the service sector registering the largest increase (6,024 more).

In all in January, there were 30,140 people out of work in the construction sector, 287,226 in the service sector, 44,019 in industry, and 8,392 in agriculture.

Yet, the number of work contracts in January did go up by 21,334 to a total of 253,297, or 9.2% more than in the previous month, but 9.07% fewer than in January 2019.