Unemployment rate in Spain rises to 20.05%

The National Institute of Statistics (INE) has confirmed today that by the end of the first quarter of 2010 the unemployment rate rose to 20.05%. At the end of March this year a total of 4,612,799 people were registered as unemployed. This is the highest figure since the end of 1997 and has broken all previous records. It is also 286,200 more than at the end of 2009.

These are exactly the same figures that were published by the daily newspaper ABC after a technical fault meant that the results from the Active Population Survey were temporarily available for viewing over the internet.

The unemployment rate recorded at the end of the first quarter this year is 1.2% higher than the previous quarter and during the same period for 2009 the unemployment rate was 17.36%.

The current unemployment rate is the highest since records began in 2001. Looking further back using other available data the highest unemployment rate was registered during the last quarter of 1997 when it reached 20.

11%.

During the first quarter of this year there were 251,800 job losses (-1.3%). Most of the job losses were in predominantly male occupations. More specifically 8 out of every 10 jobs lost were occupied by men (200,700 jobs) compared to 51,100 women who lost their jobs. The total number of people with jobs was 18,394,200.

Since last year the number of people officially registered as unemployed has risen by 602,000 which is an increase of 15%. The total number of jobs losses during this period was 696.600 (-3.65%).

During the first three months of this year the number of people with jobs fell by 239,400 (-1.55%), out of this total 165,700 were temporary workers (-4.2%) and 73,700 were permanent workers (-0.63%).

The number of households with all its members registered as unemployed went up by 78,500 in the first quarter of 2010 which is an increase of 6.

4% compared to the same period last year. Since last year this group of unemployed has risen by 230,200 which means that there are now 21.5% more people who live in household where all its members are unemployed. At the same time the number of households where all members are in paid work went down by 213,400 during the first three months of this year and by 400,100 compared to a year ago.