Spain's unemployment falls for first time in 2yrs

[FarCenter]

AFP - Spanish unemployment rate fell for the first time for two years to 26.26 percent in the second quarter, official data showed on Thursday, a day after the central bank said the recession-hit country seemed close to a recovery.

On the back of demand for workers during the tourist season, the number of jobless people fell by 225,200 over the quarter to reach a total of 5,977,500 unemployed, dipping under the psychological barrier of 6 million.

"If we compare the development of unemployment of this quarter to the same quarter during the last five years, it must be underlined that the fall in unemployment is the biggest since 2008," the national statistics office INE said.

Spain now has the second-highest level of unemployment in Europe, after Greece, which posted a jobless rate of 26.9 percent in April.

http://www.france24.com/en/20130725-spains-unemployment-falls-first-time-2yrs