Biggest fall in jobless for four years

29 January 2005

MADRID- The Spanish unemployment rate fell to 10.38 percent in the fourth quarter of 2004, the biggest drop in four years.

The jobless rate is still one of the highest in the European Union.

The unemployment rate fell from 10.54 percent a year earlier, Spain’s national statistical institute (INE) said.

Analysts said two million Spaniards were out of work at the end of the final quarter last year.

In the 25-member European Union as a whole according to November figures, the latest available, the joblessness rate came to 8.9 percent of the workforce against from 9.1 percent in November 2003.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news