The number of people actually in work, namely signed up with the Social Security system in Spain, fell by 184,031 (1.13%) in January to 16.173 million, the lowest figure since April 2002, according to figures released by the Government.
January is traditionally a bad month for the labour market, with the number of people claiming for unemployment rising by 113,097, or 2.4 percent, when compared to December 2013.
The positive spin put forward by the ministry is that on a month-on-month basis, this January was the ‘least negative’ since 2007.