SHARP FALL IN NUMBER OF PEOPLE OUT OF WORK

THE number of people out of work registered in the offices of INEM, the Unemployment Benefit Office in the Balearics, at the end of May dropped by 5'901, leaving the number of jobless on record at 21'742, that is to say 5.35 per cent of the working population, according to information made public by the Ministry of Employment. In May, the drop in the number of unemployed in the Balearics in relative terms was 21.35 per cent when seen in the context of figures for April - the highest figure for any of the self-governing communitieswhilst in the rest of Spain, there was a drop of only 3 per cent. The estimate for May unemployment in the Balearics is once again the lowest in Spain, more than three points below the national average (5.35 in contrast to 8.64 per cent). Seen against May 2002, unemployment figures rose in the region by 2'975 people (15.85 per cent).
In the three previous years, unemployment figures registered in May varied as follows: in 2000 it fell 27.83 per cent; in 2001 - 25.93 per cent and in 2002 - 24.56 per cent. Men registered as being without work at the end of last month totalled 9'940, a drop from the previous month of 2'153 (-17.80 per cent), while the figure for women for the same period registered at 11'802, a drop of 3'748 from the April figures (-24.10 per cent). In comparison with May 2002, the number of unemployed men rose by 1'865 and women by 1'110.
At the end of May, the estimate figure for men unemployed in the Community stood at 4.19 per cent and for women at 6.99 per cent.