When we were greeted by the latest batch of optimistic Spanish data this morning, such as the following:

Spain June Manufacturing PMI 54.6 vs 52.9 in May; Est. 53

Guindos Says Spain Growth Accelerating to Rates Close to 1.5%

And this from the Economist: "With recession over and jobs being created, Spain's economic recovery is surprisingly strong"

we thought, we would see some actual "end of recession" signals when it came to the underlying economy, like for example: jobs actually being created. Alas no. According to the just released European employment data for May, total Spain unemployment remained unchanged in May at 25.1%, while youth unemployment has actually risen to 54.0% - the highest since January!

That's ok though: aside from the facts, once is welcome to "believe" whatever headlines one wants to believe.

And speaking of "recovery", here is what unemployment across Europe looked like as of May.

Source: Eurostat