Excellent News for Spanish and European Employment

According to Eurostat, the organisation that calls itself an "encyclopaedia of European Union statistics", the state of European employment has never been better.

Its figures show that 72.2% of European Union citizens aged between 20 and 64 were in employment in 2017; a percentage never before seen for this economically active population.

This is great news, especially amid concerns for what effects Brexit may have on the European bloc and the changing political dynamic in several member states.

The latest Eurostat data for 2018 gives the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for October, which puts the 28 EU nation average at 6.7% and the European area as a whole at 8.1%. The former is the healthiest monthly statistic for the EU job market since Eurostat started its records in the year 2000.

Although Spanish national unemployment (14.8%) is only pipped to last place within the EU by Greece (18.9%) – two countries that suffered much-documented economic downturns several years ago – it experienced one of the most significant drops of any nation state; from 16.6% in the previous period.

In other promising news, the Spanish minimum wage is due to be increased from 1^st January thanks to a Royal Decree that should make its way into law later this month. This would be irrespective of the passing of the PSOE (socialist) government’s budget, which itself seems set to be contested by other parties in Parliament.

The pay increase will amount to a substantial 22% and, much to the delight of over 6.3 million residents in Spain, has been brought forward from its original implementation date of mid-2019.

So, by way of summary… higher European employment, meaning fewer citizens are out of a job, and Spanish residents coming into the labour market or employees occupying entry-level positions will be much better off economically.