Spain's unemployment falls in 2024

The number of people registered as unemployed in Spain at the end of 2024 was down by 146,738, or 5.42 percent from the start of the year, data published by the country's Ministry of Labour and Social Economy on Friday showed, reported Xinhua.

The ministry earlier had said that unemployment in the country fell by 25,300 in December, and the total number of people out of work stood at 2,560,718.

Meanwhile, the number of people registered with Spain's Social Security system rose by 42,700 during the last month of 2024, and the number of people registered as working stood at 21,344,487.

"We start 2025 with good news. We have again lowered unemployment," Yolanda Diaz, Spain's labour minister, said, adding, "We will continue to go forward towards a new Spain with better, quality jobs and more rights."

The positive news comes two days after Spain's Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo predicted in an interview on Spanish radio station Radio Nacional that the country would see its GDP grow by 2.5 percent in 2025.

"Spain will continue to be the motor of European growth in 2025 and 2026," Cuerpo noted.