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Spanish unemployment tops five million person mark

By Francisco Miñana

Date: Friday 27 Jan 2012

Spanish unemployment tops five million person mark

The fourth quarter Spanish unemployment rate rose to 22.85% from 21.52%, according to the results of the Economically Active Population survey carried out by the country’s national statistics office.

The total number of unemployed persons reached 5,273,600 compared to 4,978,300 in the previous quarter. The much-feared 5m mark has now been surpassed with 577,000 jobs lost in the last twelve months.

Looking at the different sectors, we see that unemployment fell in agriculture (-42,300) and construction (-2,900) but rose in industry (29,100) and services (124,500).

Unemployment rose more among males (+166,100) than females (+129,200) and Spaniards (+223,800) than foreigners (+79.400) in aggregate terms. The unemployment rate among foreigners however stands at 34.82%.

The number of people unemployed for over a year rose by 201,900 but fell by 15,000 among those looking for their first job.

The number of homes with all family members unemployed rose by 149,800 to 1,575,000.

By autonomous regions, unemployment rose the most in Madrid, Balearic Islands, and Catalunya over the last three months. The Canary Islands and Andalucia have unemployment rates of over 30% while in the Basque Country and Navarra, unemployment is below 14%.

According to analysts at Digital Look, "Spain’s labour situation continues to worsen further with more than five million people now unemployed. Some 1,575,000 households have all of their members unemployed. Today's data shows that the Spanish economy continues to outperform as far as job destruction is concerned.

"The outlook for the coming quarters is not encouraging as the Spanish economy will fall into recession. The labour market remains at a critical point ahead of the new government’s labour-market reform measures. Of note, the impact which higher numbers of unemployed could end up having on both current and projected loan default rates at lenders," they said.

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