-Engracia Hidalgo, Secretary of State for Employment
In Spain the number of unemployed people increased for the first time in three months to approximately 78,000 in January 2015. The number of jobless people beat expectations for an 83,400 increase. In January normally higher unemployment rate is reported, but this particular month had the smallest increase since 2007. During the last 12 months the number of unemployment registrations decreased by 288,744 people, which was the biggest decline per year since 1998, with the year-on-year jobless rate at 6%. By economic sectors, unemployment activity changed the most in agriculture, a 7.46% increase, while services sector experienced only a 2.68% rise to 76,744 people. However, unemployment dropped in construction and industry sectors to 7,857 and 753 people, respectively. The number of people, without being previously employed, fell to 6,012. In December 2014 the amount of payrolls was 1,907.2 million euros, whereas the number of people seeking unemployment benefits accounted for 2,417,742.
Meanwhile, the producer price inflation in the Euro zone decreased more than anticipated. The PPI plunged by 1%, compared to 0.3% in the preceding month, and 0.3 percentage points more than expected. The annual PPI decline rate was 2.7% in December 2014, which is 1.1% higher than in November 2014.
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