Rising jobless rate

TO put the latest unemployment figures in perspective you have to take the whole population of the Balearics and then multiply it by five and you will have the total jobless figure. A nightmare scenario. For once I agree with the trade unions; the governments both here and in Madrid are doing little to tackle the unemployment crisis which is the highest of any country in the industrialised world. The central administration in Madrid appears to be resigned to the fact that the jobless rate is going to continue to rise until the summer season gets underway in May. The easiest way to create jobs is by helping the tourist industry. If only the government would tackle the problem of winter tourism, jobless rate would be far lower. If only the archaic shop opening hours were scrapped I am sure that the high street would start recruiting new staff. Now, I am sure that the new Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is busy trying to deal with Spain´s economic crisis but really he should make tackling unemployment one of his key tasks. This was one of his election pledges and the time has come for him to tackle this problem head-on. The unemployment rate is not only a social problem, having five million people without a job must be a major drain on Spain´s limited economic resources. A few months ago its appeared highly unlikely that unemployment would pass the five million mark, now it could easily reach the six million mark.