Unemployment drops in Spain for fifth straight month

[unhappycamper]

http://www.dw.com/en/unemployment-drops-in-spain-for-fifth-straight-month/a-18557703

Latest government figures show that jobless numbers are steadily dropping in Spain. But the country still has the second highest unemployment rate in the eurozone - behind Greece.

Unemployment drops in Spain for fifth straight month
02.07.2015

~snip~

Massaging the figures

However, the Labor Ministry's monthly figure is a different measure from the quarterly unemployment rate, which also includes other job seekers who are not signing on for benefits.

That figure, from the National Statistic Institute, put Spain's unemployment rate at 23.78 percent in the first quarter - a total of 5.44 million unemployed people. Only Greece, which recorded an unemployment rate of 25.6 percent in March, had a higher rate inside Europe.

Spain returned to growth in 2014 with an expansion of 1.4 percent after five years of recession or stagnation following the collapse of a labor-intensive building boom in 2008.

Spain's conservative government, which is facing a year-end general election, earlier this year hiked its economic growth forecast to 2.9 percent for 2015 and 2016. The government forecast the unemployment rate would fall to 22.1 percent in 2015.