Malaga and Costa del Sol stand out amongst places in Spain with biggest drop in unemployment and highest job creation in July
The province has achieved a major milestone by falling below 110,000 unemployed people
Unemployment in Malaga and along the Costa del Sol continued to drop in July, while the number of people registered with the Social Security system in Spain rose - expected statistics given the season and the strong tourist pull of the province. Once again, Malaga was among the Spanish provinces with the best performance in the labour market, bringing the number of unemployed people below the 110,000 mark - a barrier that has not been broken since the summer of 2008, when the Great Recession hit. July ended with 108,865 unemployed.
With this drop in unemployment, Malaga comes third in the national ranking, behind Cadiz (-2,812) and Asturias (-1,296). July was, in reality, not the best month for many other provinces. Unemployment rose in 28 provinces, including Barcelona (+3,623), Valencia (+1,540) and Madrid (+1,138). Spain ended the month with 1,357 fewer unemployed than in June: a drop of 0.06%. It was the performance of tourist provinces such as Malaga that saved the day.
Unemployment fell in July in all sectors in Malaga except construction, which ended the month with a very slight rise (+157). The services sector saw the largest drop in jobseekers, down by 799, followed by the group of people without previous employment, which decreased by 422. Agriculture and industry showed barely any change, with drops of 42 and 38 respectively.
Job creation
This fall in unemployment in Malaga in July (the sixth in a row) is fuelled by job creation, which for the moment continues at a strong pace, despite the worse figures in the tourism campaign this summer on the Costa del Sol. An average of 758,948 people were paying contributions in the province in July, 6,271 more than in June.
Malaga was, together with Cadiz (which surpassed it with a monthly increase of 9,420 contributors), the only province where employment grew in July in Andalucía, while the rest of the provinces lost affiliates and the region as a whole ended July with a loss of 16,335. In Spain as a whole, only the Balearic Islands, Gerona and the aforementioned Cadiz surpassed Malaga in terms of job creation.
The year-on-year drop in unemployment in Malaga shows that the province decreased the number of people without jobs by 7,976 in the last 12 months, while addind 23,755 employed. The question remains as to whether August will continue on this path or whether, as in some years, it will be the first step in the usual 'autumn slope' of the Malaga labour market.
