Unemployment figures in Spain rose by more than 5,000 people in June

UNEMPLOYMENT in Spain has risen by over 5,000 people in June.

In a normal year, unemployment would be falling drastically in June, as the summer season would be starting.

However, the effects of the coronavirus crisis are still evident, despite the de-escalation measures, with 5,107 people losing their jobs during the month of June.

According to figures released by the government, that brings the total number of jobseekers nationwide to 3.86 million, the highest figure since May 2016.

The rise in unemployment for June is the first increase the month has seen since 2008, right before the financial crash.

There is some positive news however and that’s the fact that the number of job losses is significantly lower than previous months during the pandemic.

During March, 302,000 people lost their jobs, while in April that number was 283,000 and in May that number had fallen to 26,573.

This downward trend has continued into June, with the figure of 5,107 representing only 1.6% of that from March.

According to the Labour Ministry, the end of the fruit picking season is responsible for the unemployment numbers in June, as 25,000 farm workers are now out of a job.

In addition, according to El Pais, unemployment also fell in sectors such as services and construction and to a lesser extent in industry.

Unemployment figures do not include the thousands of workers who are on ERTE due to the pandemic and are receiving part of their salary by the government.

According to the Labour Ministry more than 3.7 million people were benefiting from this at the peak of the crisis.

Of these, 1.6 million have returned to their job, with 1.2 million of them returning in June.

This comes as the ERTE scheme was recently extended until September.