MADRID Spain's unemployment rate fell to 11.60%, a 15-year low, down from 13.26% three months earlier, data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) showed on Thursday.

The unemployment rate had not been that low in Spain since the third quarter of 2008, when it was 11.23%, INE said.

The number of people employed in the period rose to an all-time record of 21.1 million, following an increase of 603,900 from the first quarter.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast Spain's unemployment rate would fall to 13%. The rate was 12.48% in the second quarter of 2022.

The second quarter is traditionally good for unemployment because seasonal sectors such as agriculture and tourism tend to hire more people after the winter.

The fall in unemployment in the second quarter this year affected all sectors, particularly services and construction.

(Reporting by Jakub Olesiuk, editing by David Latona and Inti Landauro)