Prime Minister's Office of Spain : Spanish unemployment increases by 187, 300 to 5.96 million, at a slower rate than the previous year

The number of people without a job increased by 187, 300 in the fourth quarter of 2012, slightly over 108, 000 less than the figure recorded in the same period of the previous year. The unemployment rate rose by 1% to 26.02% and the total jobless number in Spain now stands at 5, 965, 400.

The service sector was hit particularly hard by job losses in the last quarter of 2012, where unemployment rose by 305, 600 (accounting for 84.1% of all job losses in the period). The service sector was followed from far behind by the construction and industrial sectors, with quarter-on-quarter job losses recorded at 62, 900 and 58, 500, respectively. On the other hand, the agriculture sector grew, with 63, 700 new jobs.

The seasonally-adjusted employment figures reflect a total loss of 224, 000 jobs (-1.3%). This is slightly higher than the rate of decline recorded in the previous quarter (-1.01%).

In terms of employment stability, the figures show that job losses in paid employment affected both temporary and permanent employment contracts, but that the former were affected to a much greater extent. 216, 600 temporary jobs were lost in the quarter while 91, 100 workers with a permanent employment contract lost their job.

The number of workers with a permanent employment contract fell by 3.6% year-on-year (slowing the rate of decline by 0.1%), while the pace of job losses among workers with a temporary employment contract increased by 0.1% to -13.5%. This result shows that the temporary employment rate has fallen by 1% to 23%, which represents a fall of 2% over the course of the last year.

The number of full-time employees fell by 6.5% year-on-year, while the number of part-time employees rose by 5.7%. These figures represent a 0.6% faster decline for the former and an improvement of almost 2% for the latter.

This result shows that the proportion of workers with a part-time employment contract increased by almost 1% in the quarter (up 1.5% compared with the previous year) to 15.3%. This is a new all-time high.

The economically active population shrank by 176, 000 in the third quarter, which is a decline of -0.8%. This rate falls to -0.6% when adjusting the figure to account for seasonal effects, lower than the increase recorded in the previous quarter (0.1%). When compared with the previous year, the economically active population shrank by 158, 800, or -0.7%, in contrast with a rate of -0.2% in the previous quarter.

This decline in the active population is the result of a fall in the population (116, 800 fewer people in the 16-64 age bracket than in the third quarter) and, to a lesser extent, a slight reduction of 0.3% in the rate of activity, which now stands at 59.8%. This latter decline reflects changes in the rate of activity among men and among the under 25s.

Both the falling population and the shrinking labour force can be fully explained by the reduction in the number of foreign citizens residing in Spain, as the number of Spanish citizens has remained stable in both cases. On the other hand, the number of foreign citizens over the age of 16 fell by 3.65% year-on-year and, within that group, the number of people who are economically active fell by 5%.

Unemployment increased by 187, 300 (89, 300 in seasonally-adjusted terms), slightly more than 108, 000 less than the figure recorded in the same period of 2011. Total unemployment now stands at 5, 965, 400. The unemployment rate rose by 1% to 26% of the labour force. When analysing the non-seasonally-adjusted figures, this rate increases to 26.1%. This is 0.5% higher than in the previous quarter.  With this figure included, the average rate of unemployment for 2012 would stand at 25%.

These figures show that the fourth quarter of 2012 recorded the slowest growth for the year. This is supported by the statement published by the Bank of Spain, in which a quarter-on-quarter GDP decline of -0.6% is indicated.

The effects of various adjustment measures have been focussed on this quarter, and it will foreseeably be the worst quarter of the current recession in the Spanish economy. However, the Government of Spain expects that an easing of the downward GDP trend over the course of 2013 will have a positive effect on employment figures and that employment will tend towards stabilisation over the course of this year.