Spain's 4Q Unemployment Rate Fell Below Pre-Pandemic Level
January 27 2022 - 03:30AM
Dow Jones News
By Xavier Fontdegloria
The Spanish unemployment rate continued to decline in the fourth
quarter of 2021, returning to pre-pandemic levels for the first
time as the country's economy continued to recover.
Spain's unemployment rate declined to 13.33% in the fourth
quarter from 14.57% in the previous three-month period, Spanish
statistics office INE said Thursday. The rate is below the 13.78%
pre-pandemic level registered at the end of 2019, and the lowest
since September 2008.
The number of unemployed people fell by 312,900 in the last
three months of 2021 to a total of 3.1 million, while employment
edged up by 153,900 people to 20.18 million, INE said.
Spain's unemployment rate has been declining steadily since the
last quarter of 2020. At the height of the coronavirus pandemic,
the country activated a short-term program to pay part of the wages
of workers put on furlough by their employers, cushioning the hit
to employment from the economic fallout.
Write to Xavier Fontdegloria at xavier.fontdegloria@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 27, 2022 03:15 ET (08:15 GMT)
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