Recorded unemployment falls by 210,484 in last 12 months, a year-on-year decrease of 6.17%

In seasonally-adjusted terms, unemployment fell by 8,746 people.

The number of unemployed fell by 50,570 in December when compared with the previous month, a decrease of 1.55%.

Unemployment among men stands at 1,337,244, a decrease of 5,697 (down 0.42%), while unemployment among women stands at 1,865,053, a decrease of 44,873 (down 2.35%) when compared with November. When compared with December 2017, unemployment among men has fallen by 122,482 (down 8.39%) and among women by 88,002 (down 4.51%).

Unemployment among young people under the age of 25 fell by 17,378 in December (down 6.57%) when compared with the previous month. In year-on-year terms, youth unemployment has fallen by 21,194 people at a rate of -7.9% (1.73 points faster than the overall rate of decrease).

Unemployment among those aged 25 and above fell by 33,192 (down 1.11%).

Recorded unemployment fell in 14 autonomous regions, led by Andalusia (down 22,306), Madrid (down 6,578) and the Region of Valencia (down 4,433). However, unemployment rose in Cantabria (up 718) and La Rioja (172).

By sector of economic activity, recorded unemployment fell in Agriculture by 10,392 (down 6.97%), Services by 43,874 (down 1.93%) and among first-time job-seekers by 10,269 (down 3.66%). In contrast, recorded unemployment rose in the Industrial sector by 3,967 (up 1.42%) and Construction by 9,998 (up 3.74%).

Permanent employment in 2018, at its highest since comparable records began

A total of 2,284,924 permanent employment contracts were signed in 2018 as a whole, an increase of 355,674 on the previous year. This figure is the highest since current records began and represents an increase of 18.44% on the total number recorded in 2017.

The total number of contracts registered in the month of December stood at 1,709,631. This is also the highest December figure since current records began. Of those, 144,778 were permanent contracts and 1,564,853 were temporary contracts.

In terms of permanent employment contracts, December saw an increase of 13,711 (up 10.46%) on the same month of the previous year, while the number of temporary employment contracts rose by 2.89%. Permanent employment contracts account for 8.47% of all contracts this month.

In turn, the accumulated number of employment contracts for 2018 as a whole stood at 22,291,681.

Benefits

The coverage rate of the unemployment protection system in the month of November stood at 59.9%, almost two points (1.97%) up on the same month of 2017.

There were 1,844,843 unemployment benefit recipients in November, 3% fewer than in the same month of the previous year.

The amount paid out in benefits totalled 1.51 billion euros, 2.1% more than in the same month of the previous year.

Non official translation