Madrid, Sep 3 (EFE) A total of 84,985 people were added to jobless rolls in August, following three consecutive months of declining unemployment, putting the total number of people without work in Spain at 3.6 million.
The number of people without jobs has risen by 1.09 million, or 43.44 percent, in the past 12 months, the labour and immigration Ministry said Wednesday.
Unemployment rose in all sectors, especially in services, with 47,805 more job losses, followed by construction, with 20,400, and manufacturing, with 11,471.
Another 6,462 foreigners lost their jobs, bringing the number of unemployed non-citizens to 488,570.
The Spanish government blamed the rise in unemployment on the fact that seasonal contracts expired at the end of a summer when tourism “has not reached the levels of previous years” and there was less hiring to begin with.
Meanwhile, the Property Registry Association said that home sales totalled 100,850 in the second quarter, off 33.9 percent from the same period in 2008.
Sales were down 8.45 percent, compared to the first quarter, the association said.
During the April-June 2009 period, 55,300 new home sales, down 12.57 percent below the level in the previous quarter, and 45,550 existing home sales, off 2.88 percent from the first quarter, were registered.
At the end of the second quarter, the average mortgage amount per dwelling was 131,105 euros ($186,000), or 4.34 percent less than in the previous quarter.
The real estate industry started contracting sharply in 2008 after serving as the engine of Spain’s economy for several years.
