Spain jobless rate falls in 2014 for second straight year

MADRID, Jan 22 (AFP): Spain's unemployment rate fell for the second straight year in 2014 to 23.7 per cent as an economic recovery gained pace, but remains at one of the highest levels in the European Union, official data showed Thursday.
Joblessness fell from 25.73 per cent in 2013 as the country's large services sector took on more staff, driven by a strong tourist season and construction activity also picked up, the National Statistics Institute said.
The fall was greater than what had been expected by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's conservative government, which had forecast the country would end 2014 with a jobless rate of 24.2 per cent.
The Spanish economy, the eurozone's fourth-largest, has enjoyed modest but steady growth since emerging in mid-2013 from its second recession after the collapse of a property bubble in 2008 which brought Spain to the verge of default and threw millions of people out of work.
The number of people without jobs fell last year by 433,900. Employment increased by 344,200 positions in the services sector, 98,000 in industry and 40,000 in construction.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's conservative government estimates the economy will have expanded by 1.4 per cent in 2014 and will grow by 2.0 per cent in 2015, a faster growth rate than is expected in France, Germany and Italy.
Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said the government's forecasts could be revised upwards.
"I think these figures could be better," he said during an interview with private television La Sexta.
Rajoy, who is facing a general election at the end of the year, credits a 2012 labour law reform which has made it easier for employers to lay off workers or reduce their wages, thus reducing their risk in creating jobs.