Spain's jobless queue shrank sharply last year, dropping by 9.5 percent, the labour ministry said Wednesday, as unemployment continues to recede from the record highs seen during the 2013 crisis. The ministry said 3.7 million people were registered as out of work last year, nearly 400,000 fewer than in 2015, the biggest-ever yearly reduction.

The official jobless rate - which measures the number of people out of work as a proportion of the working population - will be published later this month by Spain's statistics agency. However, far from welcoming the news, one of Spain's most influential unions, UGT, complained that many of those moving out of the jobless queue had only been able to find employment with precarious working conditions.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2017