Tourism boom brings Spain’s unemployment rate down

MADRID: Spain’s unemployment rate dropped in the second quarter, official data showed Friday, as a continued tourism boom added jobs in the services sector.

The jobless rate fell to 11.3 per cent between March and June in the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy, down from 12.3 per cent in the previous three months, national statistics institute INE said in a statement.

The services sector saw the biggest drop in the number of job seekers with nearly 200,000 fewer than in the first quarter but unemployment also dropped in oththe er sectors, including construction, industry and agriculture, it added.

The total number of people employed in Spain rose by 434,700 people in the second quarter from a quarter earlier to hit a new record of 21.68 million.

Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on X that “Spain is making progress by breaking employment records. We continue to work to make this the legislature of full employment. We are going in the right direction,” he posted on the social network.