OFF THE DOLE

Nearly 80,000 fewer registered as unemployed at end of 2022

THE jobless total fell by 79,900 people in 2022 - a decrease of 2.6% on the year before.

Over the same period, 278,900 jobs were created – an increase of 1.4% on the previous year – most of which were taken up by foreign workers. Both of these figures were an improvement on 2020, the year that the coronavirus pandemic hit and dealt a severe shock to the Spanish economy, according to the National Statistics Institute (INE).

That year saw the worst figures for unemployment

By Simon Hunter

since 2012, when the country was being rocked by the consequences of the global financial crisis and the bursting of the property bubble.

Global

But the latest data is a far cry from 2021, when 840,700 jobs were created and unemployment fell by 600,000 people.

At the end of 2022, the unemployment rate was at 12.87%, just 0.4 percent - age points below the figure in 2021 but the lowest endof-year figure since 2007. Just over three million Spaniards were out of work at the end of last year, with