In July Spain registered its first drop in jobless claims since February

In July Spain registered its first drop in jobless claims since February as more businesses began to reopen their doors after months of coronavirus lockdown.

The Labour Ministry says the number of people in Spain registering as jobless fell by 2.33% in July from a month earlier, or by 89,849 people, marking the biggest July drop since 1997.

Still, 3.7 million people remain out of work across the country and overall, there were 761,601 more jobless people in July than in the same month a year ago.

Unemployment fell across all sectors apart from agriculture which saw a 5.9% rise due to the end of fruit-picking seasons.

The number of jobless people had risen in June by 0.13% even as the nationwide lockdown came to an end.

Meanwhile around 712,000 Spaniards have left the country’s ERTE furlough scheme, the social security ministry have said, meaning around two thirds of furloughed workers have now left the program.