Malaga unemployment drops to lowest level for six years but job creation slows

2016-02-02 08:00:00

Employment figures released yesterday paint a mixed picture for Malaga province. While it continues among the top performers for reducing unemployment, the province created far fewer jobs in 2015 than it did in 2014.
The national unemployment report for quarter 4 (Q4) last year reveals that the number of jobless in Malaga fell by 37,600 to 214,500. This brings the provincial unemployment rate to 27 per cent, almost four points below the same quarter in 2014 and its lowest level since 2009.
The figures rates as the fourth highest decrease among Spanish provinces, a ranking led by Madrid, Barcelona and Almería. Malaga’s performance put it in second best position in Andalucía after Almería.
The fall in the jobless rate in Malaga can be attributed to two factors, namely job creation and a fall in the working population. Figures for new jobs - some 15,800 new ones were added in Q4 - are considerably below the decrease of 21,800 from the working population.
This points to a slow down in the number of new jobs. Malaga ranked near the top for new jobs in 2014 when 66,700 were created. Figures for 2015 are less than a quarter of this.
The services sector continued to be the main generator of jobs in Malaga last year, employing over 500,000 people. Construction added 1,700 new jobs and farming 2,700. Industry, on the other hand, lost 6,900.
National figures were also very positive and the decrease of 678,000 people on the unemployed registry was the biggest on record. The number of people currently unemployed in Spain - just under 4.8 million - is the lowest since 2010.
Job creation also produced some satisfactory results with a 3 per cent rise. For the second year in a row, Spain created employment after six years of destroying it.
Andalucía too received good news on the employment front. The number of unemployed fell by 197,400 people in Q4 bringing the rate to sightly beñpw 30 per cent.source surinenglish