The total unemployment figure in March is the lowest for a month of March since 2008 when it was 2.30 million people. The number of unemployed people had risen in January and February. The unemployment decline coincided with an net increase of formal jobs, the Social Security Ministry said in a separate report. Spain gained 151,943 net formal jobs in March to 20.53 million jobs, the report said. "This is extraordinary data," Social Security Minister Jose Luis Escriva said in an interview on Cadena SER radio station. "Our expectation for the coming months is very good." He added the job creation is related to the extra government spending financed by the European Union recovery funds.
The fall in unemployment, which affects all sectors of activity, was also partly due to the Easter season as the biggest drop was in the services sectors.
Randstad, an HR company, said in a study that compared to last year it saw a 17% increase in the number of contracts signed during Easter, driven mainly by the hotel industry.
Out of the 1.32 million contracts registered in March, almost 47% were permanent, pointing to a "hiring model change" since the application of the labour reform, which was approved last year. Spain is the EU country with the highest use of temporary contracts, covering around a quarter of the workforce.
Still, despite the good data in Spain, recent data from Eurostat, the EU's statistical office, showed the country had the bloc's highest jobless rate in February with 12.8 percent, twice as high as the EU average of 6.0 percent. (Reporting by Jakub Olesiuk, editing by Inti Landauro and Angus MacSwan)
