Number of employees still going down

The economy lost another 17,000 employees in October, with a total of 40,000 people laid off from July through September. Industry has been hit hardest by layoffs, while the construction and trade sectors witnessed the highest numbers of new personnel this year. The number of employees in the economy had constantly risen for six months since the beginning the year, to a peak of 4,578,000 people at the end of July. The decline began after that point, and continued during October, the last month for which data was published by the National Statistics Institute. The number of employees at the end of October amounted to 4,538,000, some 140,000 less than early in the year. If we contrast this with the figures for the same time last year, in order to reduce the effect of seasonal employment, the number of employees is only 88,000 higher. The biggest personnel declines throughout July and October were registered in industry (41,000 layoffs), and in the hotel sector (9,000 people made redundant). Unlike the hotel sector, where the personnel cutbacks were caused by the end of the summer season, the layoffs in industry are almost chronic in nature. ZF