STORY: Over 21 million people in work in Spain for first time ever
DATELINE: July 28, 2023
LENGTH: 00:01:14
LOCATION: Madrid
CATEGORY: ECONOMY/SOCIETY
 
SHOTLIST:
1. various of people working in Spain
2. SOUNDBITE (Spanish): NADIA CALVINO, Spain's acting Minister for Economy
3. various of Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez's tweeter about the country's employment
 
STORYLINE:
 
The quarterly Inquest into the Active Population (EPA), published by the Spanish Statistical Office on Thursday, shows that over 21 million people are in work in Spain for the first time ever.
 
21,956,700 people are now in work in Spain, which is the highest number ever recorded. That is thanks to the creation of 610,000 jobs in the private sector (due mainly to the arrival of the holiday season and the creation of jobs in the service sector), while the number of workers in the public sector dropped by 6,200.
 
Meanwhile, the number of people registered as unemployed fell by 365,300 between April and June, dropping the total number of people out of work to 2,762,500, which means an unemployment rate of 11.6 percent.
 
The unemployment data is the best since 2008, although the data from 15 years ago was partly due to the bubble in the construction sector, which subsequently burst, leading to the economic crisis.
 
SOUNDBITE (Spanish): NADIA CALVINO, Spain's acting Minister for Economy
"Employment has improved in quality and stability and the number of self-employed workers has also increased by almost 100,000."
 
Meanwhile, acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who is currently in negotiations to form a government in the wake of last Sunday's general election, celebrated what he called "extraordinary data which shows the strength of our economy."
 
Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Madrid.
(XHTV)