Spain created fewer jobs in third quarter that during the same periods in the two previous years, a first sign that the job market is cooling after an impressive post-pandemic recovery. Unemployment rose slightly to 12.7% in the July to September period, according to data released by the statistics institute on Thursday.
“The third-quarter performance was much worse than last year’s, and worse than we would expect in a good economic year, which indicates clear signs of a slowdown,” said Valentin Bote, head of Randstad Research in Madrid. ING economist Wouter Thierie expects the unemployment rate to rise to 14.3% in the third quarter of 2023 as the economy loses steam.
