Spain's unemployment rate fell to 15.98% in the first quarter of the year from 16.13% reported in the previous quarter, data from the National Statistics Institute showed on Thursday, even as the number of people in work also fell.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the European Union's highest unemployment rate would climb to 16.6% in the January to March period.

Still, the rate is higher than the 14.41% recorded in the first quarter of 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic started to take its toll.