Unemployment up for third month in a row in September

Unemployment in Catalonia rose for the third month in a row in September, with 3,373 more people out of work than in August.

There are a total of 354,318 unemployed people according to the latest figures made public on Tuesday morning, down 6.3% year-on-year to rates not seen since September 2008.

Unemployment typically increases after the summer months as temporary contracts in the tourism and restaurant industries come to an end.

Most job losses across Catalonia were in the services industry, except for in the Barcelona area, where this trend was not as noticeable. In rural western Catalonia, almost half of those newly unemployed were agriculture industry workers who lost their jobs after the summer harvest season. 

Women account for almost three-fifths of all jobseekers, although there are slightly fewer compared to men than before. Similarly, under 25s out of work now account for 3.11% of the unemployed population, down from 5%. 

Half of all new contracts permanent

265,006 new contracts were signed in Catalonia in September, 27.45% more than in August, of which around half were permanent thanks to this year's changes to Spain's labor market regulation limiting temporary employment and fining non-compliant companies. 

Over 50% more contracts were permanent in September than in August, a figure that rises to a staggering 184.79% year-on-year. 

Unemployment in Spain

Across Spain there were 17,679 more people out of work in September than the month prior, a 0.6% increase.

All in all, there were 2,941,919 unemployed people in Spain. 

According to the Spanish labor ministry, this is a smaller than usual increase for the month of September, when on average from 2008 to 2019 there have been around 46,300 more unemployed people this month than the month before. 

Andalusia was the part of Spain that saw the steepest rise in September (6,785), followed by Catalonia (3,373), Astúries (2,565), and Galicia (2,197).