The number of unemployed in Spain has fallen by more than 6% on an annual basis in 2018, including among young people. However, the number of unemployed people in the country remains very high – 3.2 million. This is stated in a communique from the Ministry of Labor, Migration and Social Security of Spain.

“The number of unemployed has dropped by 210,484 in the last 12 months, which represents a decrease of 6.17% on an annual basis”, says the communique.

The ministry does not publish unemployment data. Its methodology is only reported to people registered with the employment agency and the figures are lower than the more detailed data of the National Statistical Institute.

At the end of October, the institute announced that the total number of unemployed was 3.33 million or 14.55%.

Unemployment in Spain has fallen since 2013 but remains the second highest in the Eurozone after Greece.

The average unemployment rate in the Eurozone is 8.1%, according to the latest data released by Eurostat at the end of November. The youth unemployment in Spain dropped by 7.9%.

Pedro Sanchez’s government, which already started the campaign for the parliamentary elections this year, has adopted a 2 billion EUR plan to combat youth unemployment. The goal is to reduce it from 33% to 23.5% in three years.

Also aware that temporary employment is at a very high level, the ministry stressed today that 2018 permanent employment contracts increased by 18.44%.

The government announced on December 12 plans to raise the minimum wage by 22.3% and the increase was presented as the most significant since 1977. Thus the minimum monthly gross salary rose to 1,050 EUR, compared to 858 EUR previously. The employers’ organizations criticized this decision on the grounds that it could destroy jobs.