MADRID, 27 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Unemployment rose by 60,800 people between July and September, which is almost 2.1% more than in the previous quarter, while employment increased by 77,700 jobs (0.4%), placing the total number of employed above 20.5 million people, the National Institute of Statistics (INE) reported this Thursday.

Specifically, at the end of September, the total number of unemployed stood at 2,980,200 people and that of employed people, at 20,545,700 people, its highest figure since the third quarter of 2008, when it exceeded 20.55 million workers .

Except for 2020, when the pandemic triggered unemployment in the third quarter by 355,000 people, the rise in registered unemployment this summer is the worst data in a third quarter since 2012, when it grew by 93,200 people. In the summer of 2021 there was a decrease in unemployment of 127,100 people.

In this way, the unemployment rate rose almost two tenths in the third quarter of this year, to 12.67%, while the activity rate rose slightly more than one tenth, to 58.86%, after increasing the active number in 138,500 people between July and September (0.6%).

With regard to job creation, the 77,700 jobs generated in the third quarter contrast with the strong upturns that were registered in the same period of 2020 (569,600 jobs) and 2021 (359,300), in which the end of the restrictions boosted job creation. Compared to the third quarter of 2019, before the pandemic, the number of newly employed registered this year is somewhat higher.