Spanish unemployment
ticks up in August as tourism boom wanes
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[September 02, 2016]
MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish
unemployment rose for the first time in five months in August,
coinciding with the tail-end of a bumper tourism season, though the
underlying pattern suggested a long but gradual recovery in the labor
market remains on track.
A record summer for tourist arrivals has helped the economy shrug off a
prolonged period of political uncertainty and, seasonally-adjusted, the
number of people registered as jobless fell by 24,462 people in August,
Labour Ministry data showed on Friday.
But compared with July the jobless number rose by 0.39 percent, or
14,435 people, leaving 3.7 million out of work.
Increases in unemployment are common in Spain in August, as factories
reduce activity in what is the peak holiday season and many private
sector teachers fall off the social security registers that track job
creation in the lull that precedes the start of the new school term.
Hotels and restaurants, meanwhile, continued to create jobs last month
though the services sector as a whole laid off staff, the ministry said.
With the bumper summer for tourism drawing to a close, Spain faces a
fresh challenge to keep its economic recovery on track as one of the
major drivers of growth and employment wanes.
Two inconclusive elections in the past eight months have left the
country unable to form a new government amid a stand-off between parties
on the right and left, and the impasse may start to weigh more heavily
on the turnaround if it drags on, acting Economy Minister Luis de
Guindos said this week.
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Later on Friday conservative acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy faces a second
confidence vote in parliament for a second term in office. If he loses as
expected, the countdown would be triggered to a likely third election in
December.
A gradual recovery in Spain's jobs market, which collapsed in 2008 when a real
estate bubble burst and the economy sank into a long recession, has so far
underpinned a consumer spending rebound.
That in turn has helped economic growth stay robust in the first two quarters of
the year, meaning Spain can ill afford any slowdown in job creation.
Compared to August last year, there were just over 519,000 more people in work,
up 3 percent, the ministry said.
But on a month-on-month basis, nearly 145,000 fewer people were registered as
working, the biggest drop between July and August since 2008.
(Reporting by Sarah White; editing by John Stonestreet)
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