spanish ministry of employment

The number of people registered on the unemployment lists in Catalonia in February stood at 452,342 people, 1,581 fewer than in January, according to the Spanish Ministry of Employment and Social Security. This February’s fall is the smallest registered for this month in the last 21 years. In annual terms, Catalonia has now listed 44 consecutive months of declining unemployment, since July 2013. Indeed, February has usually been a month with decreasing unemployment, except during the worst years of the economic crisis. The number of contracts registered in February stood at 222,369 units, the highest figure for the month of February since 2006. In the whole of Spain, unemployment also fell in February. There were 9,355 fewer unemployed than in January and the number of people without a job totalled 3,750,876.

The number of people registered on the unemployment lists in Catalonia at the end of 2016 stood at 453,645, some 62,023 fewer than at the same time in 2015, according to the Spanish Ministry of Employment and Social Security.This is the best figure since 2008 and represents a 12% decrease in comparison to the unemployment registered at the end of 2015. Most of those who are still unemployed belong to the services sector (315,305), while nearly 56,000 correspond to the industry sector, more than 44,000 belong to the construction sector, nearly 11,500 to the agriculture sector and more than 26,500 were already unemployed. In the whole of Spain, 2016 finished with 390,534 fewer unemployed, who totalled 3,702,974 people. This is the biggest decline in the historic series and represents a 9.54% decrease in comparison to December 2015.

The number of people unemployed and registered as such at the Catalan Public Employment Service (SOC) at the end of October increased by 7,325 peoplecompared to the September figures, a growth of 1.62%, according to data released on Monday by the Spanish Ministry for Employment. In total, there were 458,406 individuals who were without a job and were looking for a new one. In the whole of Spain, unemployment increased by 44,685 people in October, which means that the total number of jobseekers registered on the Public Employment Service’s lists reached 3,764,982. Within the last 12 months, unemployment in Spain fell by 411,387individuals, 9.85% less than last year.The construction sector is the only area where unemployment decreased in both Catalonia and Spain.