Unemployment rises as tourism season ends

Compared with 2015, though, the unemployment rate looks rather better, as there were 10,337 fewer people on the register. In this regard, the Balearics leads the decline in the national rate of unemployment.

Another region commonly associated with seasonal sun-and-beach tourism, Valencia, had the highest decrease in unemployment: 6,875 people came off the register. The highest actual increase in unemployment was in a region not associated with this type of tourism - Castile-La Mancha, where there 13,864 more unemployed.

Nationwide, the rise was 44,685 to give a total of 3,764,982. The trend in unemployment means that current levels are the lowest for the past seven years. The October increase was the least pronounced since October 2007, when there were 31,214 more unemployed. Since then, the average rise in October has been around 92,000.

The service sector was unsurprisingly the main contributor to the unemployment rise - over three-quarters. Construction was the only sector where unemployment decreased, which again is normal for the time of year.

There was a total of 1,867,360 job contracts registered with social security in October, which was the highest number for nine years. Of these, under nine per cent were indefinite, meaning that the overwhelming majority were temporary.