Asturias, one of the communities with reduced unemployment
In the first quarter of 2024, unemployment in Asturias decreased by 300 people compared to the end of last year, which represents a reduction of 0.58%. Currently, there are a total of 51,700 unemployed in the region. These data come from the Active Population Survey (EPA) published by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
Asturias is among the only four autonomous communities in which unemployment has decreased in the first quarter. The other communities are the Canary Islands, Madrid and Navarra. In addition, Asturias has experienced an increase of 6,600 employees, which represents an increase of 1.67%, reaching a total of 402,300 workers.
Reduction of the unemployment rate in Asturias
The unemployment rate in Asturias has decreased from 11.81% to 11.40%, below the national average. While the national unemployment rate has increased from 11.76% to 12.29%. It is important to highlight that the decrease in unemployment in Asturias has been smaller compared to the growth in employment. This is because the active population, that is, people over 16 years of age who work or are looking for employment, has increased by 6,300 people in the first quarter, which represents an increase of 1.41%, reaching a total of 454,000 people.
Despite these positive data, Asturias continues to be the community with the lowest activity rate, with 50.81%, almost eight points below the national average of 58.63%.
Year-on-year comparison and data assessment
Compared to the first quarter of 2023, unemployment in Asturias has decreased by 5,600 people, which represents a reduction of 9.76%. This is above the national average for unemployment reduction (-6.54%). On the other hand, employment has increased by 21,800 workers, an increase of 5.74%, being the second largest relative increase among the autonomous communities, after Cantabria (6.40%).
Begoña López, managing director of the Public Employment Service, has assessed these data very positively, highlighting that Asturias has surpassed the barrier of 400,000 employed people for the first time since 2017.
Situation at national level
In the country as a whole, the number of employed people decreased by 139,700 people in the first quarter of 2024, which represents a reduction of 0.65%, reaching a total of 21.25 million. On the other hand, unemployment increased by 117,000 people, an increase of 4.09%, reaching 2.97 million.
The reduction in employment has been observed in all sectors, especially in services, where employment has been reduced by 56,100 workers.
In the last year, employment has increased in Spain by 615,800 people, while unemployment has decreased by 208,500 people.