Spain’s service sector created net jobs in mid-April after March layoffs

MADRID (Reuters) – Spanish labour minister Yolanda Diaz said on Tuesday the country’s services sector started creating net jobs last week, marking a slight improvement after companies massively laid off workers in March, but overall unemployment still rose in April.

“Since Monday April 13, there has been a net job creation trend, although very weak, in that sector,” she told lawmakers, adding that almost 12,000 new workers registered with the social security on April 13-16.

But the number of registered unemployed rose about 5% so far in April, she said, adding though that the rise in jobless numbers was slower than in March. Some 900,000 people lost their job during the last two weeks of March when the country went into lockdown due to the coronavirus epidemic and most hotels, restaurants and shops closed down.