Spain among EU nations with worst employment record in 1st quarter
08:01, 16 June 2009
MADRID. June 16. KAZINFORM Spain has seen a drastic drop in its employment rate in the first quarter, which makes it the second largest EU nation in terms of job losses, official figures showed on Monday, Kazinform refers to Xinhua.
Its employment decreased 3.1 percent in relation to the same period in 2008 and 6.4 percent on inter-annual terms, said the EU statistics agency Eurostat.
According to figures released by the Spanish National Institute of Statistic (INE), the country's unemployment rate in the first quarter was 17.3 percent, which means more than 4 million people were out of work.
It was only surpassed by Lithuania, whose employment fell 4.5 percent compared with the corresponding period last year, Kazinform cites Xinhua. See www.chinaview.cn for full version.