Spain’s unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest level in over four years and is now lower than when Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy took office, potentially boosting his chances in an election less than two months away.

But with one in five still out of a job, many feel left out of the economic recovery on which the government is pinning its hopes of a second term.

Frustration over an enduring jobs crisis will weigh on the December 20 vote, with many Spaniards divided over whether their prospects are improving after a double-dip recession that sent unemployment soaring to nearly 27 per cent in 2013. The jobless rate fell to 21.2 per cent in the third quarter, its lowest level since mid-2011 and a sharper drop than many economists had expected, data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) showed yesterday.

Yet the pace of job creation showed some signs of slowing in the July to September period, and 4.9 million people remain out of work, meaning the recovery is yet to trickle down to many.

“Rajoy will have a strong card to play in the election campaign, but we’re talking about macroeconomic indicators, which is different from real people feeling a real recovery,” said Vincenzo Scarpetta, political analyst at Open Europe.

I’m going to vote for a change. You might as well take a risk

Rajoy’s centre-right People’s Party (PP) is struggling to win back voters after forcing through deep spending cuts, even as the government projects the economy will grow 3.3 per cent this year.

Tarnished by corruption scandals, the PP is still far from being able to secure a majority, and polls show newer political forces such as business-friendly Ciudadanos or leftist Podemos grabbing votes from other parties.

Spain’s long-term unemployed have been among the hardest hit by the crisis, and the number out of work for over a year is still higher than it was four years ago. “Things seem to be worse than ever,” said Beatriz Gonzalez, 36, a single mother from Granada who has been unable to find work since 2007.

A bank clerk and a dietician in the past, she now also cares for her sick mother, whose pension and welfare benefits form the family’s main income.

“I’m going to vote for a change. You might as well take a risk,” she said. She added that she hadn’t decided yet whether to support Podemos or Ciudadanos, but would not back the opposition Socialists as she had previously.

Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said yesterday the jobs trend was encouraging, though more needed to be done.

In the third quarter, 182,200 jobs were created, the INE data showed, more than in the same period a year ago, helped by a record tourism season which extended to September with a new all-time high for that month.But that was less than the nearly 412,000 created in the second quarter. Even when stripping out seasonal effects, the quarterly pace of jobs growth in the third quarter slowed.

The bulk of jobs created were also part-time and temporary ones, thus not fully feeding into domestic consumption which is still by far the main driver of the Spanish economy.

Results in the past two days from power company Iberdrola and lender Bankinter have shown that activity remains subdued and far below its pre-crisis levels, while foreign trade data, also out on Thursday, pointed to slower exports growth.

This chimes with signs the broader economic recovery cooled off in the third quarter, and comes amid warnings from Brussels that the government is overly optimistic about growth next year as momentum in emerging markets falters.