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177,470 more unemployed in January

02 February 2012

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EFE

The January data from the Public Employment Services in all autonomous regions show an increase of 177,470 unemployed (4.01%) on the previous month. Recorded unemployment thus stands at 4,599,829.

This is an increase of 368,826 in year-on-year terms (8.72%).
Per sector of the economy, recorded unemployment shows the following changes with regard to December: an increase of 6,282 (4.3%) in Agriculture; an increase of 15,105 (2.96%) in Industry; an increase of 16,347 (2.11%) in Construction; and an increase of 132,581 (5.07%) in Services. Finally, the number of first-time job-seekers rose by 7,155 (1.89%).

Unemployment among men rose by 78,655 (3.56%) on December 2011 to a total of 2,288,393 and unemployment among women rose by 98,815 (4.47%) to 2,311,436. When compared with January 2011, unemployment among men rose by 183,154 (8.7%) and unemployment among women rose by 185,672 (8.73%).

Unemployment among the under-25 rose in January by 16,396 (3.56%) on the previous month while unemployment among the over-25 rose by 161,074 (4.07%).

Recorded unemployment rose in all 17 autonomous regions, led by Andalusia (39,050) and Madrid (22,756).

Recorded unemployment also rose in all provinces, led by Madrid (22,756) and Barcelona (13,131).

Employment contracts

1,038,601 employment contracts were recorded in January 2012, a decline of 77,418 (-6.94%) on the same month of 2011. Of those, 75,899 were permanent employment contracts (accounting for 7.31% of the total). This is a decline of 26,834 (-26.12%) on the same month of the previous year.

Unemployment benefits

A total of 784,353 unemployment benefit applications were processed in December 2011, which is a decline of 3% on the same month of the previous year. The average time required for an application to be accepted was 1 day, 2 days less than in December 2010.

The number of unemployment benefit recipients at the end of the month stood at 2,927,098. This is a reduction of 2.9% on the same month of the previous year. The rate of coverage for the unemployment protection system in December 2011 stood at 69.9%.

2.58 billion euros were paid out in unemployment benefits in December 2011, which is a reduction of 1.3% on the same month of the previous year.

Assessment

The State Secretary for Employment, Engracia Hidalgo, stressed that the recorded unemployment figures for January 2012 show that "besides the deep economic crisis that is affecting this country, the labour reforms implemented by the previous Government have been unable to avoid dismissals being used as the main adjustment mechanism when faced with falling demand".
"In light of this situation, a labour reform such as the one being prepared by the Government is more than justified as we need to return confidence to workers and business leaders so they can overcome the crisis together and for dismissals to only be used as a last resort", concluded Engracia Hidalgo.