Spain jobless claims drop again
Spanish claims for unemployment benefits fall for 2nd straight month, down by 55,000 in June
On Thursday July 2, 2009, 4:02 am EDT
Buzz up! 0 Print.MADRID (AP) -- The number of people filing claims for unemployment benefits in Spain has fallen for the second straight month, dropping by 55,250 in June, the government reported Thursday.
The decline left the total at 3,564,889 and marked the first time since mid-2007 that the figure has gone down two months in a row, the Labor Ministry said.
The government says Spain's actual unemployment rate, which is released separately and quarterly, stood at 17.4 percent at the end of March, the highest in the EU. The EU statistics agency Eurostat puts the figure even higher, at 18.1 percent.
Spain's economy has slumped into recession over the past two years after the collapse of a boom fueled by construction and consumer spending. Since June 2008, unemployment claims have risen by 49 percent.
June is traditionally a good month for employment in Spain because companies in the tourism sector hire for the summer holiday season. Still, the increase in June of this year was the biggest since 2001, the ministry said.
Maravillas Rojo, secretary general at the ministry, said the June figures were good news but not enough to indicate a turnaround.
"However, in the next few months we can expect a better performance in employment than over the past year," she said in a statement.
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