(Reuters) – Spain ended 2024 with 2.56 million people unemployed, the fewest in December since 2007, the Labour Ministry said on Friday on its website.
The number of people in Spain registering as jobless fell 0.98% in December from a month earlier, or by 25,300 people, the ministry said. The number was 5.4% lower than in December 2023, but above the 2.13 million registered without a job in December 2007.
“We finished the year 2024 as we had started it: reducing unemployment, fighting precariousness and will to go forward,” Labour Minister Yolanda Diaz said on the social media platform X. “In 2025 we will keep improving data and win over more time to live better.”
The number of jobless people in December was a touch higher than in the summer, when the tourism industry traditionally hires thousands of temporary workers.
The number of unemployed people in December dropped in services and agriculture and rose in construction and industry.
The unemployment rate, which has traditionally been higher in Spain than in other countries in the region, has constantly declined since its peak mid 2014 as the economy recovered.
In stark contrast with the other euro zone large economies, Spain is growing at solid rate and is expected to have expanded by 3.1% in 2024, according to its central bank.
The unemployment rate stood at 11.21% in the third quarter, statistics department said in October, the lowest since 2008. The fourth quarter rate is due next month.
The number of unemployed people aged under 25 fell 5.54% in December to a total of 185,801, reaching its lowest level in the historical series in December, Diaz said.
Spain gained 42,700 net formal jobs during the month to 21.34 million, when adjusting for seasonality, a separate report from the Social Security Ministry showed.
(Reporting by Marta Serafinko, editing by Inti Landauro and Toby Chopra)
