Change in economic model required

PALMA
UP to 30'000 more people will be out of work in the Balearics compared to the same period last year by the end of the tourist season, one of the main unions warned yesterday.

Manuel Pelarda of the UGT said that between 25'000 to 30'000 more people would be out of work by the end of the tourist season compared to 2007, a situation he finds “very worrying”.

For this reason, Pelarda urged the Government to make efforts to change the Balearic economic model.
Pelarda painted a gloomy picture of the unemployment situation when the tourist season comes to an end in October.
He said that Government predictions of an extra 10'000 out of work would be “easily surpassed” and said that if in the second trimester of the year the number of unemployed in the Balearics had risen by 17'500 by the end of the year the figures would be “devastating”. He said the reason was the economic model which is based on construction and creating residential tourism, which destroys jobs, as opposed to hotel tourism, which creates them.

He added that a lot of people who would be out of work come the end of the tourist season would not be eligible for welfare, which was “very worrying”.
Meanwhile, the Balearic Minister for Employment and Training, Margarita Najera, said yesterday that it was important to look after the tourism sector in the Balearics.

She said that tourism would allow the region to find a way out of the crisis. Najera said she was worried about the possible worsening of the interannual unemployment figure. She said the figures of the second semester were “good” when compared with that of the first - down 10'300. However, that figure is due to temporary creation of employment during the tourist season.