MADRID, July 25 - Spain's jobless rate fell to 11.12 percent of the workforce in the second quarter, thanks to strong growth in job creation in construction and services, data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) showed on Friday. Jobless ranks dropped by 97,600 people, bringing down the jobless rate quite sharply compared with the first quarter's 11.73 percent. The number of Spaniards in jobs rose by 233,700 people, bringing the total to 16.7 million people.
The jobless survey, the first since the end of the Iraq war, shows the resilience of the Spanish economy in the face of the global economic slowdown that has hit many of its neighbours far worse than Spain. Nevertheless, the fall in jobless still leaves Spain with one of the highest unemployment rates in the 15-nation EU. The latest European Union data, released on July 1, showed average EU unemployment at 8.1 percent. INE said there had been strong job creation in the quarter in construction, where the number in jobs rose by 62,800 compared with the first quarter, and services, where they rose by 223,500. But employment in agriculture and industry fell by 37,100 and 15,500 respectively.
Spain has also had some bad news on the jobs front recently, with Spanish-French tobacco company Altadis saying this week it would lay off a quarter of its workforce in Spain and France and close several factories in an attempt to offset declining cigarette sales. Sources at broadcasting company Antena 3 also said this week the firm plans job cuts to reduce its costs by 20 percent before a stock market flotation this year. Spain also publishes monthly data on people signing on at unemployment offices which generally show a much lower jobless figure. The latest figure, released by the Labour Ministry, showed registered unemployment steady at 8.6 percent in June. But INE's figure, which comes from a survey of the working age population, is the one used for international comparisons.//