SPAIN lost 162,800 jobs in August, as the end of the summer season hit the country’s labour market.
The number of people registered as unemployed also increased by 44,419 during the month, reaching 2.36 million.
However, this remains the lowest unemployment figure recorded for August since 2007.
The figures were partly offset by the government’s controversial regularisation of foreign workers, which began earlier this year.
While August normally sees a fall in the number of foreign workers paying into the Social Security system, the opposite happened this year.
The number of foreign contributors increased by around 39,500 during the month, bringing the total number of foreign workers registered with Social Security to more than 3.5 million.
In total, 337,900 foreign workers have joined the Social Security system through the regularisation process so far.
Colombia and Venezuela account for almost half of these new registrations.
Despite the August drop, Spain has added more than 679,000 jobs over the past year.
Foreign workers account for around 482,000 of those additional jobs – equal to around 70%.
Education was the sector hit hardest in August, losing around 78,000 jobs as activity stalled during the summer holidays.
Health and social services, as well as hospitality, were among the sectors to see employment increase.
The government says the latest figures show that Spain’s labour market continues to improve, despite the usual seasonal fall in employment during August.
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