Spain unemployment drops below 10% in first since 2008

Madrid: Spain s historically stubborn unemployment fell below 10 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, official data showed on Tuesday, a first...

Madrid: Spain's historically stubborn unemployment fell below 10 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, official data showed on Tuesday, a first since the 2008 financial crisis.

The jobless rate in the European Union's fourth-largest economy was 9.93 percent in the period, 0.52 percentage points below the preceding quarter, the National Statistics Institute said.

It was the lowest reading since hitting 9.6 percent in the first quarter of 2008, at the onset of a global recession that left deep scars in the Spanish economy.

"For the first time since 2008, unemployment falls below 10 percent. Spain has almost 22.5 million people with jobs, a new record," Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez posted on X.

The service sector, which includes the vital tourism industry that represents around 13 percent of annual economic output, accounted for the bulk of the fall, alongside agriculture and industry, the statistics office said.