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Palma.— Showing very little optimism over job market recovery in the Balearics in the near future, two of every three regional citizens questioned in a survey said that there is little alternative but for the government to spend more on getting the economy up and running again, even if it means increasing the public deficit.

The survey was carried out this month by the Gadeso foundation among 900 residents in the Balearics. Of those questioned, 65 percent said that they couldn't see the jobless rate in the region coming down at all, whilst 67 percent said that they put the reactivation of the economy before control of public debt.

According to Gadeso, the pessimism over job prospects was at its highest in Minorca where 68% of participants in the survey said that there won't be any recovery in the labour market at all over the next year. This figure lowered slightly to 62% of interviewees on Ibiza and 64% on Formentera.

Regarding people's preference for public sector intervention even if it were at the expense of increasing the deficit, Gadeso pointed out that in a survey carried out some months ago, the number of people holding this opinion was almost the same as the number who thought it was more important to reduce public debt although it meant economic stagnation.

Chief worries
The chief worries in the Balearics are the level of unemployment and lack of job security (64.2%), economic problems (61.5%) and political parties (47.5%).

Gadeso however highlighted the fact that in comparison with similar studies carried out at a national level, people in the Balearics were slightly less concerned about unemployment than the Spanish nation as a whole. According to the survey, there is greater concern in the Balearics over lack of job security and economic problems.

The biggest difference dividing the Balearics and Spain as a whole is concern over political parties. At a national level, just 25.4% of those interviewed categorised politics and politicians as a major concern, whilst in the Balearics the figure is 47.5%. Other worries for Islanders are standards of education (17.9%) and immigration (10.4%).