Unemployment rises by 117,000 people until March and 139,700 jobs are destroyed, its biggest drop since 2020

MADRID, 26 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Unemployment rose by 117,000 people between January and March, which is 4.1% more than in the previous quarter, while employment fell by 139,700 jobs (-0.6%), registering in both cases their worst records in a first quarter since 2020, with the arrival of Covid, the National Institute of Statistics (INE) reported this Friday.

At the end of March, the total number of unemployed stood at 2,977,900 people, the highest number since the first quarter of 2023, and the number of employed people reached 21,250,000 workers, in this case the lowest number of employed people since the first quarter of 2023.

However, in an assessment sent to the media, the Ministry of Economy, Commerce and Business has highlighted that the EPA data for the first quarter consolidates the volume of employed people at over 21 million people.

The increase in unemployment in the first quarter of this year is the highest in a first quarter since 2020, when the outbreak of Covid led to a rise in unemployment of 121,000 people. In the first quarter of last year, unemployment rose by 103,800 people, less than it did in 2024.

The unemployment rate rose almost half a point in the first quarter, up to 12.29%, its highest value since the first quarter of 2023. The Ministry of Economy has highlighted that the first quarter of the year is characterized by an "unfavorable seasonality "and that, compared to a year before, the unemployment rate is more than one point lower.

For its part, the activity rate fell two tenths, to 58.63%, after the number of active people decreased by 22,700 people between January and March (-0.09%).

In the last year, unemployment has been reduced by 208,500 people (-6.5%) and 615,800 jobs have been created (3%), while the volume of assets has increased by 407,300 people (1.7%).

According to the INE, the number of employees fell in the first quarter by 69,800 people (-0.4%), with the entire adjustment concentrating on temporary employment (-173,500), since employees with permanent contracts increased between January and March by 103,700 (0.69%), to exceed 15.2 million.

In this way, the temporary employment rate fell to 15.7%, marking its best record in the historical series, as highlighted by Economía.