Unemployment rate rises in January

The number of unemployed people registered with the Catalan Employment Service (SOC in Catalan) rose by 4,848 in January to a total of 422,866 jobseekers. It is the biggest rise in the unemployment rate for a January since 2015, when the total grew by 6,821 people.

Catalan rise less than Spain as a whole

Yet, Spanish employment ministry numbers show that the 1.16% rise in Catalonia is below the 1.87% increase in the jobless rate in January for Spain as a whole. The rise, which is concentrated in the service sector, is attributed to temporary end-of-year contracts coming to an end.

With an extra 63,747 unemployed people registered in January, the jobless total for Spain as a whole grew to 3,476,528. Yet, the total number of unemployed people was 283,703 less (7.5%) than in January 2017. According to the ministry, every January since 1997 has seen an increase in the jobless rate, with the exception of 1998.

Two ways of calculating unemployment

The figures differ from those published last week in the latest Labor Force Survey (EPA in Spanish), which identified 479,200 unemployed people in Catalonia. The survey also found that there were 79,200 fewer unemployed people in Catalonia in the final quarter of 2017, compared with the same period in 2016.

The variation in the figures can be attributed to the different methods for gathering data. The SOC figures are based on the number of jobseekers registered with the Employment Service, while the EPA figures are taken from surveying a broad sample of 65,000 households, or some 200,000 individuals, all over Spain.