STORY: Tourism boom in Spain helps boost record employment in 2024, says economist
SHOOTING TIME: Jan. 15, 2025/File
DATELINE: Jan. 16, 2025
LENGTH: 00:02:17
LOCATION: BARCELONA, Spain
CATEGORY: ECONOMY

SHOTLIST:
1. various of tourists in Barcelona (File)
2. various of economy-related views in Spain (File)
2. SOUNDBITE 1 (Catalan): MONTSERRAT GUILLEN, Professor of Economics at Barcelona University
3. various of street views in Spain (File)
4. SOUNDBITE 2 (Catalan): MONTSERRAT GUILLEN, Professor of Economics at Barcelona University
5. various of street views in Spain (File)
6. SOUNDBITE 3 (Catalan): MONTSERRAT GUILLEN, Professor of Economics at Barcelona University
7. various of street views in Spain (File)

STORYLINE:

The tourism boom that Spain experienced in 2024 is one of the main reasons why the country registered half a million new jobs last year and the lowest unemployment rate for 17 years, Spanish economist Montserrat Guillen told Xinhua in an interview on Wednesday.
   
Data published by Spain's Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration on Jan. 3 showed that 501,952 new jobs were created in 2024, the fourth consecutive year in which employment has grown, while unemployment dropped by 5.4 percent to 2,560,718 people (146,738 fewer), its lowest level since December 2007.
   
SOUNDBITE 1 (Catalan): MONTSERRAT GUILLEN, Professor of Economics at Barcelona University
"Certain reforms have been made that means that some jobs that were previously done informally are now being done under contract and so these jobs that existed before are now being counted, and at the same time there has been a huge boom in the tourism sector."
   
Spain reached a historic peak in international tourism in 2024 with 94 million visitors registered, a 10 percent increase over the previous year, according to data from Spain's Ministry of Industry and Tourism.
   
SOUNDBITE 2 (Catalan): MONTSERRAT GUILLEN, Professor of Economics at Barcelona University
"In Spain, there is a lot of hiring before summer, which is when more workers are needed by the agricultural industry in the countryside for food production and harvests, and also because more workers are needed for the increase in tourism in summer."

Employment in Spain in 2024 peaked in June with 21.4 million people in work and for six of the twelve months last year that figure remained above 21.3 million.

Coinciding with the Christmas period, December was also a good month for the employment figures with 35,000 new jobs, the best December in the past three years, and 25,300 fewer people registered as unemployed.
   
SOUNDBITE 3 (Catalan): MONTSERRAT GUILLEN, Professor of Economics at Barcelona University
"Those who want to work can find work but what we need to look at is the quality of this work and the productivity of the worker. These are pending issues because good workers should get paid more and this is an issue we need to address and should be our future goal."
   
Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Barcelona, Spain.
(XHTV)