Spain unemployment rate drops below 20% for first time in six years

Spain’s job market is looking increasingly healthy, and next year holds more promise.

The signs that Spain’s economy is back on a trajectory of sustainable growth keep on stacking up, and the latest job news in the country is certainly cause for cautious celebration…

For many years, Spanish unemployment levels have been far higher than the Eurozone average. But recent data showing that joblessness is at 18.9% is hugely significant. Sure, that rate is still much higher than in places such as France, Germany or Belgium, but the rate at which this figure has fallen is encouraging.

Just two years ago unemployment was close to 30% in Spain, with youth unemployment standing at 50%. Today, Spain can now state that it has ended the longest period in the past 40 years where one-in-five Spaniards was unemployed.

The data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) shows that there are now 18.52 million Spaniards in work, with sectors such as tourism, construction and manufacturing posting strong growth over the summer. In the tourism sector alone, more than 220,000 jobs have been created in the past three months, and while some of those jobs will be temporary, there are more longer-term roles being offered than in recent years.

At the end of the third quarter of the year, the INE calculates that just 4.32 million Spaniards are now out of work, and only 27,300 people were laid off in the quarter. Meanwhile, during the same period the private sector added 217,700 new positions, while even the public sector – rudderless without a government for ten months – added close to 10,000 new jobs.

With unemployment now below 20%, Spain is almost back to normality. The seasonal and regional nature of the country’s employment sector has meant that a 20% unemployment rate in the country has long been commonplace, and it was only during the credit-fuelled boom years either side of the millennium that this rate dropped below 15% for any duration of time.

The signs are strong that 2017 will see a further reduction in joblessness in Spain, with the economy expected to grow by more than 3% next year. This is all extremely encouraging, and should in turn spur more investor and consumer confidence in the country’s leading industries, such as its real estate market.