Unemployment registrations and Social Security claims showed no signs of improvement in May. Because of waning exports and tourism, the total number of jobless claims went down by just 31,113. A year ago this figure was 79,701.
A similar trend is affecting Social Security claims. They increased by 77,431, nearly 40,000 less than in May 2011.
More than half a million people lost their jobs during the past year according to non-seasonal employment data.
Employment has been the slowest area to recover in Spain, feeding predictions that jobs will continue to be scarce and increasing worries about the health of Social Security accounts that have been drained by four years of economic crisis.
