Symbolic Drop

Spain’s unemployment rate has dropped to 18.9 per cent in the third quarter of 2016, down from 20 per cent in the previous three-month period. It’s the lowest rate in six years and welcome news for acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy as he looks to begin a second term in office this weekend.

The National Statistics Institute said today that the number of people out of work fell by 253,900 July through to September to a rounded total of four point three million.

Reducing the unemployment rate, the second highest in the European Union after Greece’s, had been one of Rajoy’s main promises in government since 2011.