In January, jobless claims rose by 113,097 and social security filings fell by 184,031. While these are not good numbers, they are better than they seem. There are 4,814,435 registered jobless workers in Spain, which is abysmal. Still, there are signs that positive change is near. Typically, January is a bad month for hiring, but unemployment this year was not as bad as more recent year and not too far from pre-crisis levels.
The non-seasonal job index, which adjusts month-to-month hiring data so that seasonal hiring does not skew it, shows that 35,500 jobs were created this month and 3,907 people fell off unemployment lists. These are clear signs that trends are changing. Hopefully the government can fuel the hire fire by pushing labor reforms.
