MADRID (Dow Jones)--Spanish jobless claims fell in July for the fourth consecutive month, as summer hiring in the tourism industry provides the country's ailing job market with some seasonal relief.
According to labor ministry data released Tuesday, jobless claims fell by 42,059, or 1%, to just over four million in July from June. Jobless claims rose by 4.4% on the year.
More than half of the July improvement came from Spain's services industry, where jobless claims fell by over 28,000 thanks to an especially strong summer tourism season. According to the most recent available data, the number of foreign tourists coming to Spain rose at an 8.5% annual rate in June as turmoil in Northern Africa diverts tourism to Spain.
Nonetheless, according to seasonally adjusted data from the ministry, Spanish jobless claims actually rose by 29,603 in July.
The labor ministry didn't provide an unemployment figure. But according to Monday data from the European Union's Eurostat agency, Spanish unemployment stood at 21% in June, more than twice the 9.9% average rate for the 17 countries that share the euro.
"The temporary decline in unemployment during the summer months is likely to be reversed by more increases later this year," Citigroup economist Giada Giani said. "The Spanish job market is far from stabilization, especially now that the economy seems to be slowing again," she added, in reference to weak recent economic data.
Markit's purchasing managers' index for Spain, for example, fell to 45.6 in July, its weakest reading in a year and a half. The Spanish National Statistics Institute will publish its first estimate of second-quarter economic growth Aug. 15.
In the first quarter, gross domestic product expanded 0.3% from the fourth quarter of last year. The country is suffering from the collapse of a decade-long housing boom.
Source: Wall Street Journal