Spain saw more than 26,500 people lose their jobs in May as a result of the coronavirus lockdown, official figures published by the Labor Ministry on Tuesday showed
MADRID (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd June, 2020) Spain saw more than 26,500 people lose their jobs in May as a result of the coronavirus lockdown, official figures published by the Labor Ministry on Tuesday showed.
This is the highest unemployment rate for May since record-keeping began, but an improvement on the previous two months. Spain reported some 302,000 new jobseekers in March and almost 283,000 in April.
There are now 3.8 million Spaniards registered as unemployed. The figure does not include people who were furloughed, with the government paying 70 percent of their salaries.
The European Commission has predicted that the unemployment in Spain will reach 18.9 percent by the end of the year, before going back to 17 percent in 2021. The Spanish economy is expected to shrink 9.4 percent in 2020.
