October is traditionally a bad month for employment in Spain, coming at the end of the summer holiday season and also coinciding with the end of much seasonal agricultural work.
This is borne out by the figures released by the ministry which show unemployment in the service sector rose by 71,918 (3.33 percent), while 16,072 people lost their jobs in the agricultural sector (a rise of 12.6 percent).
Nevertheless, this year's October figures are the worst since in the middle of the economic crisis in 2012 and well up on October 2018 when unemployment rose by 52,194 people and the results come at a bad time for acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez just five days before Sunday's general election in Spain.
Despite the increase in the number of people registered as out of work in Spain in October, the number of people affiliated to the Spanish Social Security system actually rose by 106,541 during the month, including those who are self-employed, and taking into account a growing working-age population of between 16 and 65.
That means some 19.43 million people are now working in Spain, 2.3 percent more than the end of October 2018, taking into consideration those
"I insist on the increase on the number of people who are working and which confirms a clear effect of confidence" in the market, commented Spain's Secretary of State for Employment, Yolanda Valdeolivas, who held that the "unemployment figures cannot be looked at without bearing in mind" the increase in the number of people in work.
She added that the rise in the number of people affiliated to the Social Security System showed that Spain has a "stable job market".