1.35 million jobs lost in Spain during coronavirus pandemic

AROUND 1.35 million jobs have been lost in Spain since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Of this number, 1,074,000  were lost in the second quarter of 2020 according to INE, Spain’s official statistics department.

This was the biggest quarterly fall in employment in the country since 1976, when official stats were first gathered.

This dwarfs the 770,899 jobs lost in the first three months of 2009, after the global financial crash.

About 285,000 workers lost their jobs in the first quarter of 2020, as the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak began to make itself felt.

At the moment another 1 million workers are furloughed under the ERTE schemee, which is set to end in September, although it may be extended.

The services sector has been particularly badly hit with 816,900 jobs lost in the second quarter.

According to Eurostat, Spain has the highest official unemployment rate in the European Union at 15.6% just ahead of Greece (15.5%).