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Palma.—The newly elected Secretary general of the Balearic Socialist Party, the former President of the Council of Majorca, Francina Armengol, will today take the Balearic government to task over what she claims is its lack of response to the unemployment crisis.

Despite last month's slight drop in the number of people out of work, local trade union leaders claim there are well over 100'000 people out of work and more and more are signing off because their benefit entitlement has expired or have turned to the black market in desperation.

Over the past three years, nearly 60'000 jobs have been destroyed in the Balearics and Armengol will want to hear from regional President Jose Ramon Bauza, what steps his governments intends to take to tackle the problem of record unemployment. With the tourist season just around the corner, the government is confident that unemployment will continue to fall as the service and tourist sectors get ready for an early Easter and then summer.

Reality
But, the reality is that most of the jobs created over the next few months will be seasonal or part time, so come the end of the summer, the unemployment rate will just shoot up again unless the government takes real affective action, Armengol fears.

She will urge Bauza to take “shock tactics” to revive the employment market, especially now that the new labour reforms, which make it easier for struggling companies to lay staff off, have been introduced.