07/05/2013 00:00
TW
0

Palma/Madrid.—Unemploymenmt in the Balearics dropped last month as the region gets rady for the summer holiday season.
The total number of people officially registered as out of work fell by 6.535 to 84'041.
The figures were welcomed by the local government and even the opposition Socialists, although they expressed their concern over the alarmingly high number of people out of work who are not receiving any benefits.

Spokspersonm for the Partrido Popular, Mabel Cabrer claimed yesterday that April's fall in the number of people ouit of is a sign that the employment markert has turned the corner. “THis has been the sixth consecutive nmopnths in which unemployment has been reduced and the balearics is the onmly region in Spain to have achioved that, so we must be doing asomething right,” she said. However, she underlined that the economic situation is still uncertain and challangeing and that everobne neeeds to be prudent and not get too carried away.

That was a sentiment echoed by regional union bosses who are more concerned about the extremely high percentage of the active population which is out of work and the booming black market.

Over 50'000 households in the Balearics do not have a single bread winner and according to the active population figures, there are well over 100'000 people out of work.

But, April's jobless figures made grim reading for Spain's unemployed in general.
Almost five million Spaniards were registered as unemployed in April, data showed, as their prospects of finding work in the country with the European Union's second highest jobless rate deteriorated further.

The number of registered jobless fell by 0.91 percent, or 46'050 people. But those gains were mainly down to restaurants and hotels gearing up for the holiday season, and in seasonally adjusted terms the number rose by 17'663 from March. “The figure shows the continued weakness of the labour market and of theSpanish economy. It's not compatible with the (government's forecast) of a stronger economy in the second quarter of the year,” Jose Luis Martinez, a strategist at Citi in Madrid, said.

Last month's quarterly National Statistics Institute survey, which polls registered and non-registered unemployed, showed that 27 percent, or 6.2 million people, were out of work in the first quarter.

Spain's jobless rate - the second highest in the EU behind Greece - has risen every quarter since mid-2011 as the economy struggles to exit its second recession since the end of 2009.