Unemployment increases by 11,500 throughout August

Unemployment in Catalonia rose by 11,594 people throughout August, bringing the total figure to 380,718 people, according to the Ministry of Employment and Social Security.

In absolute terms, this is the biggest increase for this month in the last seven years. In August 2011, unemployment rose by 13,799 people to a total of 584,648 registered jobseekers. Each municipality in the country followed the same trend.

Compared to this July, when the number of jobless fell by 1,078 people, the number of people out of work in August increased by 3.14%.

Ending a trend

This has broken the pattern of the last six consecutive months which have seen monthly drops in unemployment in Catalonia since February.

With regard to the same period last year, the number of unemployed actually fell by 16,667 people marking a decrease of 4.19%.

Different sectors affected

In the agriculture sector, the number of unemployed fell by 378 to make a total of 7,685 people. In industry, however, the figure rose by 1,268 to 43,982 people. The construction sector also saw a rise in jobseekers of 16,332 people bringing the total to 33,784, and in the services sector it rose by 10,440.

Government disappointed

The general secretary of work, Josep Ginesta, expressed his dissatisfaction with these latest unemployment numbers. "It is not good news," he said on Tuesday.

"These are not figures that satisfy us, it is an indicator of seasonality, of intermittent labor trajectories, and a labor market that is not optimal," he said, referring to the fact that employment generally increases in the summer months, as it did in July, due to the tourist season.