Best March ever for job creation in Spain, figures show

Economists’ projections for the year ahead are universally in positive when it comes to job creation in Spain, with many confident that the overall unemployment rate will dip below 17% for the first time in years…

And data published this week by the country’s Labour Ministry appears to underline why economists are so certain of continued recovery, with figures for March this year showing Spain added more jobs for the month than any other March on record.

In total, 48,500 Spaniards were pulled out of unemployment in March, and for the past 12 months that figure has now soared past 392,000 – which is the equivalent of giving new jobs to everybody in a mid-sized city, say, Bilbao.

However, Eurostat puts that figure even higher, suggesting that over half a million people in Spain have found work in the last year – the equivalent of Málaga’s population.

In total, the number of Spaniards out of work has fallen to just over four million, but what is even more striking is that, in the past 12 months, the number of new jobs added across the 19-member Eurozone reached 1.2 million, which means that Spain accounted for almost half of all of the people pulled out of unemployment over that period.

This is an impressive feat, and underscores the importance of a strong Spanish economy to the Eurozone, the European Union and Europe in general.

The road to recovery has been rocky, with wage growth still lagging employment growth – which is something the Prime Minister has pledged to address next. Rajoy’s labour reforms were not popular when they were introduced because they appeared to offer employers more sway in hiring and firing at will, but this liberalisation has served to end practices such as nepotism and jobs-for-life, which has reignited the market and ushered in plentiful new opportunities for many younger people living in Spain.

The type of jobs available has broadened too, with the number of indefinite contracts rising by 18% in the past year, outpacing growth in temporary employment, which rose 14.5%. This signifies even greater confidence in Spain’s long-term growth.

By industry, it was Spain’s construction sector that performed the best in March, accounting for 2.44% of all jobs added – more than any other sector.