A third of Almeria population jobless

ALMOST one in three (32.04 per cent) – 118,300 people – in Almeria Province are jobless, latest data shows. Nationally 4,910,200 people are unemployed, the highest number since records began. Of these, 2.1 million have been looking for employment for more than one year, while 373,600 are first time job-seekers.

This was revealed by latest National Statistics Institute data which also shows that as at April 1, 21.29 per cent of the working population of Spain were jobless.

This represents 0.96 per cent increase in the previous quarter, and 1.24 per cent more than the first quarter of 2010.

There are 1.4 million households where everyone living there are jobless,

Regionally, Andalucia has the most unemployed people with 1.19 million, 5.34 per cent more than the previous quarter and almost 10 per cent more than the same period last year.

Jobless numbers elsewhere were: Balearics 144,100 (25.36 per cent); Valencia Region 599,900 (24.12 per cent); and Murcia 192,100 (26.16 per cent).

In percentage terms, the biggest quarter-on-quarter increase was in Navarra (16.76 per cent more), Balearics (+12.03 per cent) and Aragon (+11.79 per cent).

The region with the highest rate of unemployment is Andalucia, where almost a third of the population (29.68 per cent) out of work.

The lowest is the Basque Country with 11.61 per cent unemployment.

By John Jackson