Spain employed almost 400,000 more people in 2019, but recorded worst increase for six years

THE number of people employed in Spain has increased by 2.02%, according to new government data.

Figures from the Ministry of Employment show that there were 384,373 more registered workers in December 2019 than in the same month in 2018.

This leaves the country’s total workforce standing at 19.4 million, although the actual employment increase is the lowest in six years.

Not since 2013 – a year when employment rates took a kicking from the last recession – has there been such a small increase.

Steady rises have continued for the last six years, until last summer when the number of those registered on the Social Security as ‘employed’ hit record levels.

However signs of exhaustion have been reported and a similarly weak decrease has also been registered in unemployment levels.

In the last 12 months unemployment has fallen by 38,692 people, the lowest decrease since 2012.

The drop in unemployment also slowed down locally and Malaga only reduced its figure in 2019 by 2,764.

That meant 148,485 were registered as unemployed at the end of the year, a drop of 1.83% – half that of 2018.

Yet despite the slowdown, Malaga is still reducing its number of unemployed at a faster rate than Andalucia (-1.37%) and Spain as a whole (-1.21%).