Spain trims number of jobless by 7.5% in January

The jobless rate in Spain is currently below 17% and expected to improve throughout 2018.

Every February, Spain’s Ministry of Employment publishes the jobless figures for January, and every year they show a slight rise in unemployment when compared to December…

This is inevitable, and expected. Seasonal work is not just for the summer: the pre-Christmas rush is a money-spinner, and so companies increase their staffing levels in anticipation.

Come the new year, and thousands of temporary jobs are no longer in the figures.

This is still true for 2018, but analysis of annual data shows that the number of people in Spain out of work at the end of January is 7.5% lower this year than it was in 2017.

The figures show that there are currently 3,476,528 people unemployed in Spain, which is 1.87% higher than in December last year. However, when compared to January 2017, it shows that an extra 283,000 people are now in work – which is an extremely encouraging increase in the space of 12 months.

Furthermore, the 3.47 million unemployed is a far cry from the five million-plus who were jobless in January 2013. In the past five years, Spain has effectively put to work 1.6 million people – which is pretty much equivalent to Barcelona’s population.

And the trend appears to be strengthening, with economists confident that Spain can put an additional 200,000+ people back to work in 2018 as the economy continues to strengthen.