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.
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.
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.
The service sector and industry lead recovery
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.