November jobless figures fall for first time in 16 years

Jobs were added, not lost, in November for the first time in 16 years.

Spain’s jobless tally fell by 2,500 in November this year – the first time since 1997 that a drop in unemployment has been recorded for that month.

Traditionally, the shoulder month before Christmas is hit with a double employment whammy: summer jobs shed in October cause unemployment to shoot up for November, while temporary Christmas employment usually only begins in December…

Indeed, since the current system of recording employment rates in Spain was introduced in 1997, November has never recorded a fall in unemployment. Until now.

The official statistics, released by Spain’s Employment Ministry, are further proof that the country has finally shook off a two-year long recession, with brighter signs emerging that the economy is set to grow once more.

The ministry revealed that new jobs created in the construction industry and the manufacturing sector were behind this unexpected good news, with Spain’s thriving export market and recovering real estate industry adding new positions as cash and confidence returns.

However, as with each and every small dose of good news recently, this latest slice came with the usual caveat: with 4.8 million Spaniards still jobless (an unemployment rate worse than all other eurozone countries bar Greece), there is still a long and potential painful road to travel for the Spanish economy.

Although Spain is now running an account surplus of two per cent – quite a turnaround to the sub-10 per cent depths the country plumbed at the height of the economic crisis – job creation is shaky at best, and the recent revelation that Spain has sunk to 40th in the world corruption index published by Transparency International is hardly likely to instill further confidence.

That being said, foreign investment in Spain between January and August this year amounted to almost €19 billion according to a study released this week by Spanish business school ESADE – which is more than double the amount invested during the same period in 2012.