Unemployment increased by 20% in the Canary Islands between January and March

The Canary archipelago ended the first quarter of the year with 202,500 unemployed, 33,500 more than it had on December 31, which represents an increase of 19.82%, according to the Survey on Active Population (EPA) published this Thursday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

After this quarterly increase, which coincides with the end of the high season in tourism, the unemployment rate in the Canary Islands stands at 17.27% of the active population, almost five points above the national average (13.26%), and is the fourth highest in the country, after those of Extremadura (19.53%), Andalusia (18.31%) and the Balearic Islands (18.14%).

In the last three months, the Canary Islands economy has destroyed 13,600 net jobs and 19,900 people have joined the active search for a job, which results in the rebound of 33,500 unemployed that the EPA notes as of March 31.

In year-on-year terms, from March to March, the figures are positive: the Canary Islands economy has created 55,900 net jobs in twelve months (+6.07%), which has allowed it to reduce the number of unemployed by 32,100 people (-13.67%), a figure lower than the previous one because in that period the active population has grown by 23,900 people who have joined the search for a job (+2.06%).

In fact, the Canary Islands appears in the EPA tables as the autonomous community that has created the most employment in the last year in relative terms, with three times the average (+6.07% compared to +1.83%), and the third in absolute numbers, only surpassed by the community with a much larger population: Andalusia, with 109,700 more employed, and Catalonia, with 64,000 more.

Following the Canary Islands in employment created in the last twelve months are Madrid, with 54,600 more employed, and the Valencian Community, with 50,600 more. In total, in the last year 368,000 net jobs have been created in Spain, almost one in six in the Canary Islands.

This allows the islands to be the community that has reduced its unemployment the most both in relative terms, with a 13.67% decrease, ten times more than the average of the rest of Spain (1.48%), and in absolute terms, with 32,100 fewer unemployed, when the country as a whole unemployment has fallen in the last year by 47,00 people.

In percentage terms, unemployment has fallen in the Canary Islands compared to March 2022 by three points, from 20.30% to 17.17%.

Of the 202,500 unemployed that the EPA attributes to the Canary Islands at the moment, 98,300 are men and 104,200 are women. This leaves unemployment rates at 15.89% of the active population in the male group and 18.57% in the female group.