Spanish unemployment rate falls in December

The number of people out of work in Spain fell by 59,094 in December to 4,848,723, the Spanish Ministry of Employment confirmed on Thursday. Women and young people fared quite well according to the statistics, as jobless rate fell by 2.04 percent and 6.11 percent among women and youth respectively. Meanwhile unemployment rate of people over the age of 25 was reduced by 0.66 percent. There are now a total of 2.4 million men unemployed and 2.44 million women registered out of work in Spain. However, one good month cannot hide the fact that over the year 2012 unemployment in Spain rose by 426,364, an increase of 9.64 percent compared with the previous year. Spanish Secretary of State for Employment, Engracia Hidalgo also warned that the data must be taken with caution, noting that people should pay attention to the trends in order to see if the rise in unemployment continues to slow in the coming months.