The Spanish economy destroyed jobs for the sixth year in a row in 2013, according to official statistics, with 198,900 positions being lost.
This makes 3.75 million jobs destroyed since the start of the financial crisis in 2008.
At the end of 2013, the number of officially registered unemployed fell by 69,000. Despite this much-heralded fall, however, the unemployment rate actually rose slightly to 26.03% as the active workforce shrank by some 267,900 as a result of people either dropping out of the labour market after losing hope of ever finding a job or moving abroad to find work.
In addition, although the number of unemployed fell by 69,000, the number of people actually in work fell by 65,000.