Largest year-on-year fall in unemployment in a month of September since records began, with 353,608 fewer unemployed

In seasonally-adjusted terms, recorded unemployment fell by 9,746 in September. The monthy variation in easonally-adjusted unemployment figures has fallen in 27 of the last 29 months.

Recorded unemployment has fallen by 353,608 over the last 12 months, the largest reduction since current records began for the month of September. The year-on-year fall in unemployment stands at close on 8% (7.95%), a rate not seen in September since 1999.

Following this reduction, the total number of unemployed now stands at 4,094,042 people.

Unemployment among the under-25s fell by 50,844 year-on-year, at a rate of decline of 12.4%.

Recorded unemployment has fallen among those who most recently worked in the agriculture and fisheries sector by 12,447 (down 6.41%). It also fell among those from the construction sector by 9,902 (down 2.14%) and from the industrial sector by 4,029 (down 1.02%). In contrast, it rose among those who most recently worked in the services sector by 43,145 (up 1.62%) and among first-time job-seekers by 9.310 (down 2.64%).

Recorded unemployment fell in seven autonomous regions, particularly in Castile La Mancha (down 8,932), Aragon (down 2,074) and La Rioja (down 1,386). In contrast, it rose in 10 regions, headed up by Andalusia (13,857) and Catalonia (6,881)

The increase in the number of employment contracts maintained the growth seen in recent months. A total of 1,795,742 new contracts were signed compared with the same month of 2014, a rise of 9.87%.

152,928 permanent contracts were notified in the month of September, the highest figure since October 2008.

The form of contract to enjoy the largest increase compared with September 2014 was the full-time permanent contract, which rose by 11.85%.

In the first nine months of the year, permanent employment grew by 13.49 % on the same period of 2014, while permanent full-time employment grew by 15.81%.

The State Secretary for Employment, Juan Pablo Riesgo, stressed that "the figures for the month of September show that the recovery of the Spanish job market is structural and not temporary, and that it is maintaining its momentum".

He also pointed out that "a strong rate of growth is being maintained in the new employment contracts signed, particularly in terms of permanent contracts and full-time contracts".

However, he argued that there is still a lot of work to do, "because more than four million people are still looking for a job but cannot find one". "That is why the government will continue to work hard for there to be more jobs and that these are of increasing quality", he stressed.