Summer jobs shrink Spanish unemployment

The number of people registered as unemployed in Spain's economy, the fourth-largest in the eurozone, fell by 122,684 from the previous month to 4.45 million in June, the Labour Ministry said in a monthly report.

At the same time 56,622 people found work, the best June result since Spain's unemployment crisis began, according to Spanish daily El País.

Once corrected to smooth out seasonal blips, the number of people registered as unemployed fell by a more modest 16,113 people in June — the 11th consecutive monthly decline, it said.

"It is the longest declining trend recorded since 1999," State Secretary for Employment Engracia Hidalgo said in a statement.

Spain's overall unemployment rate rose to 25.93 percent in the first quarter of 2014 from 25.73 percent in the previous three months, according to a broader, household survey.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's conservative government is fighting to bring down the jobless figures, six years after a decade-long property bubble imploded in 2008, wiping out millions of jobs and sparking a double-dip recession.