- Unemployment is reduced by 653,200 people, 12% less, with falls in all sectors of the economy
- The temporary employment rate falls in the first quarter of the year to 25.04% after the rise in permanent contracts
- Households with all their members unemployed decreased by 182,700 and those with all employed persons increased by 419,000.
Data from the Labor Force Survey (EPA) for the first quarter of the year show that the economic recovery continues to move strongly to the labor market. According to data published by the National Statistics Institute (INE), employment increased in the last twelve months by 574,800 people, which represents an increase of 3.29%, three tenths more than in the previous quarter. The total number of employed persons stands at 18,029,600 people. For its part, unemployment has decreased in the same period by 653,200 people, 12% less. The unemployment rate increased one tenth in the quarter and stood at 21% of the active population.
The data for the first quarter of the year, which is usually negative for employment due to seasonal factors, reflect less job destruction than that which occurred in the same period of the previous year. In the first three months of 2016, the Spanish economy lost 64,600 jobs, when last year the drop was 114,300. This explains why in the whole of the year there has been an acceleration in the rate of job creation. Regarding unemployment, the increase has been 11,900 people in the first quarter of the year, when in the same period of 2015 the fall was 13,100.
The labor market figures are consistent with the growth of the Spanish economy, which started the year with a cruising speed of around 3%. The rate of job creation has accelerated in the last year, with 574,800 people more employed, a growth of 3.29%, the highest rate since the third quarter of 2007. The number of employed persons has increased in the service sector ( 503,500 more people), in agriculture (60,000) and in industry (40,300). On the contrary, it has dropped in construction, with a drop of 29,000 employees. 89% of job creation in the last year occurs in the private sector and the rest in the public. In the quarter, employment has increased in the industry, but has decreased in services, construction and agriculture.
The number of full-time workers has increased by 580,600 in the last year, while the number of part-time workers has decreased by 5,800. In the quarter, full-time employment fell by 51,700 and also part-time employment by 12,900. For its part, permanent employment has increased in the last twelve months by 197,700 people and temporary employment by 343,600 people. In the quarter, permanent jobs increased by 52,400 and temporary jobs decreased by 106,000. The temporary rate fell 62 hundredths in the quarter, to 25.04%.
Regarding unemployment, the unemployment rate has stood at 21% this quarter, a decrease of 2.78 points in the year, with a drop in the number of unemployed workers of 653,200 people. In the quarter, the number of unemployed increased by 11,900 people, reaching 4,791,400. The biggest falls in unemployment are concentrated in Andalusia (170,000 less) and Catalonia (98,100 less). Unemployment has decreased in the last twelve months by 466,600 people in the group that has been looking for a job for more than a year and by 107,200 people among those looking for their first job. In the quarter, unemployment fell by 66,700 among people who lost it more than a year ago and by 36,800 among those seeking the first job. All sectors of the economy have reduced their level of unemployment in the last year: 22,700 fewer unemployed are registered in the Industry; in Agriculture, 21,900; in the Services, 19,900; and in Construction, 14,900.
The number of households that have all their members unemployed has decreased in the last year by 182,700, to 1.61 million households. For their part, households with all their members occupied have increased by 419,000 in the year, to 9.51 million. In the quarter, households with all their active members unemployed increased by 54,300 and those with all their active members occupied decreased by 20,000.
