MADRID (Reuters) - The number of registered jobless in Spain fell by 1.4 percent in December from a month earlier, or by 64,405 people, leaving 4.45 million people out of work, data from the Labour Ministry showed on Monday.
The fall in jobless levels was almost entirely due to the service industry, where unemployment was down by 65,275 people, or 2.2 percent, the data showed. Joblessness also fell slightly in agriculture, though rose in construction and in industry.
The number of jobless registered with the Ministry fell by 253,627 people, or by 5.4 percent, at the end of December from a year earlier, the data showed. That was the largest annual reduction for December since 1998, the ministry said.
In seasonally adjusted terms, joblessness was down by 5,404 people in December from a month earlier.
The total number of people paying in to the social security system rose to 16.8 million by the end of December, up 417,574 workers from a year earlier.
(Reporting by Paul Day; Editing by Inmaculada Sanz)