Catalonia sees record high number of workers registered with social security in February

February in Catalonia saw a boost in job creation and a slight drop in unemployment, according to figures released by Spain's ministry of social security on Thursday.

Workers affiliated with social services have increased by 25,600 (+0.7%) now reaching 3,603,745, the highest figure since records began in 2004.

The rise in job creation is a big change after the declines seen in January (-37,600) and December (-2,100). After the downturn in January due to the end of the Christmas campaign, the world of work tends to pick up in February.

Compared to February last year, there are almost 100,000 more employees (+2.8%) in jobs.

On the other hand, unemployment has remained stagnant with just a slight drop of -0.1%, after an increase was recorded in January. The total number of jobless workers stood at 351,288, but this is the lowest total for any February since 2008. 

In comparison to last year, there are 20,300 fewer unemployed workers (-5.5%).

For all of Spain, the number of unemployed workers increased by an even lesser margin, just 0.09%, with the number of registered unemployed workers growing by 2,618 people compared to January.

The number of workers contributing to Social Security has also increased, with 88,918 more workers registered compared to January. Compared to last year, however, there are now 475,870 more workers in Spain, up to 20,170,142 people, the highest on record for any month of February.