Spain: Unemployment rate falls in Q2
The jobless rate fell from 16.0% in Q1 to 15.3% in the second quarter, amid easing restrictions and an acceleration in the vaccination campaign. The figure came above market analysts’ expectations of a 15.1% unemployment rate, and was marred by an increase in labor force. In absolute terms, the number of unemployed workers stood at 3.54 million in Q2, down from Q1’s 3.65 million. That said, the print still partly masks the full extent of the crisis by not counting those under temporary furlough schemes as effectively unemployed.
Jobs were added across almost all sectors of the economy in Q2. The services segment added the most jobs (+365,700), followed by the construction (+63,100), industrial (+23,000) and agricultural (+13,100) sectors. Overall, a total of 464,900 jobs were added from the prior quarter. For its part, the workforce rose by 354,800 people in Q2 to a total of 23.2 million.