Covid-19 hammers Spain’s job market as country surpasses 10,000 deaths

MADRID. KAZINFORM The Spanish government on Thursday said the country’s labor market had suffered its worst month on record because of the coronavirus outbreak with the loss of over 800,000 jobs.

The job loss figures were published as Spain marked another grisly milestone in the human cost of the outbreak as it registered a record 950 deaths overnight, pushing the country above the 10,000 mark in terms of overall fatalities, although new infections were slowing, EFE reports.

Labor minister Yolanda Díaz said 834,000 jobs had been lost in March due to the national lockdown forcing all but essential workers to stay at home until at least 12 April.

«Spain has registered an increase in unemployment of 302,265 people. It is not a historical figure in the number of unemployed, but it is in terms of a monthly increase,» she told a press conference.

«We have 3.5 million people registered as unemployed.«

The services sector has been the most affected with an increase of 206,016 unemployed people as bars and restaurants were ordered to temporarily close down.

The second most affected sector was construction with a 22.92 percent increase in unemployment, followed by agriculture with 6,520 unemployed people (4.26 percent).

«The virus does not have a gender-specific impact, but structurally the labor market has a very strong gender bias. There are two million unemployed women,» Díaz said.

Spain has prohibited companies from firing employees during the health crisis and instead encouraged employers to offer temporary lay-offs called Erte.