Recorded unemployment falls by 26,887 people in July

In seasonally-adjusted terms, recorded unemployment rose by 11,771 people. Over the last 12 months, unemployment has fallen by 347,137 people, thus maintaining the pace of the annual reduction for another month, which now stands at 9.4%. Over the first seven months of the year, unemployment has fallen by 367,050 people.

Recorded unemployment fell in 12 autonomous regions, with noteworthy declines in Galicia (down 7,794), Andalusia (down 4,245) and Catalonia (down 4,075).

By sector of economic activity, recorded unemployment fell in the services sector by 17,656, in the industrial sector by 5,257, in the construction sector by 4,143, and among first-time job-seekers by 539. In contrast, it rose in the agricultural and fisheries sector by 708 people.

Unemployment among men stands at 1,407,638, a decline of 12.93% (209,083) on July 2016, while unemployment among women stands at 1,928,286, a fall of 6.68% (138,054) on the same month last year.

Unemployment among young people under the age of 25 fell by 34,317 (down 11.9%) in year-on-year terms, significantly higher than the general average of 9.4%. Since the record high back in March 2012, recorded unemployment among young people under the age of 25 has fallen by 50.7%.

Number of permanent employment contracts rises by 10.6%

The number of contracts registered in the month of July amounted to a total of 1,928,639. This represents an increase of 112,368 (up 6.19%) on the same month in 2016.

A total of 151,998 permanent employment contracts were recorded in July 2017. This represents an increase of 14,608 (up 10.63%) on the same month last year, with 42 straight months of increases in permanent hiring.

Full-time permanent contracts posted a rise of 13.93% on the same period last year. Similarly, permanent contracts among people under the age of 25 grew by 21.8% in the first seven months of 2017 compared with the same period last year.

In this regard, the State Secretary for Employment and Social Security, Juan Pablo Riesgo, recalled that 73.2% of salaried workers in Spain are on a permanent employment contract, 7.5 points higher than in 2006, according to the figures from the Labour Force Survey (Spanish acronym: EPA) for the second quarter.

Non official translation