Spain's unemployment decreased further in April, and reached below the five-million mark, indicating that the recession-stricken economy is showing signs of recovery, data released by th Labor Ministry showed Monday.
The number of unemployed persons decreased by 45,060 or 0.91 percent from the previous month to around 4.99 million in April.
Unemployment among youth, aged below 25, decreased by 26,011 of 5.2 percent from a year earlier, the agency said. Month-on-month, youth unemployment dropped by 1.03 percent.
At the same time, employee hiring by Spanish firms increased 19 percent sequentially in April. Compared to April 2012, staff intakes advanced by 11 percent.
Data from statistical agency INE last week showed that Spain's jobless rate rose to a record 27.16 percent in the first quarter from 26.02 percent in the fourth quarter. The number of unemployed increased by 237,400 to 6.2 million.
Spain has been in recession for almost four years now. The economy contracted at a slower pace of 0.5 percent quarter-on-quarter in the first quarter than 0.8 percent in the fourth quarter. The negative growth was driven mainly by weakness of domestic demand.
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