August was boom month for Balearics

PALMA
THE Balearic Islands is the region of Spain where income from the Services industry - including tourism - most increased in August this year in comparison with the same month in 2009, the National Institute of Statistics (INE) reported yesterday.

The year-on-year percentage increase, said the INE was 9.7 percent, a figure way and above the national average differential which was just 1.9 percent.

In terms of employment in the Services sector during August this year, the Institute revealed that the Balearic Islands was also the region of the country with the highest increase in jobs in comparison with the same month in 2009. The year-on-year upturn was registered as 1.9 percent seen against the national average which suffered an annual downturn of 0.7 percent.

In fact it was in very few regions of Spain at all where employment in the Services sector in August this year improved on its figures for the same month in 2009. After the Balearics with top ranking, Cantabria followed on with an increase of 1.5 percent; Aragaon (0.5%), La Rioja (0.5%) and Navarre (0.2%). And it is not just figures for August that the Balearics is celebrating.

So far this year, income from the Services industry in the region has increased by 4.9 percent in comparison with the same period last year. The Islands also take top spot in this category with the national average year-to-date figures having increased just 1.6 percent over the same timeframe.

Despite the late season boom in the Balearics, the year-to-date figures show that the number of people employed in the Services sector has actually gone down on a year-on-year basis by 0.9 percent, but this is less than the national average of -1.7 percent.

Employment low
Although the year on year growth figure for August for the country as a whole (1.9%) was well down on the strides made in the Balearic Islands (9.7%), Spain was glad to get back into positive figures in the Services industry after an annual downturn of 3.9 percent registered for July. It was the first time that figures had gone down in four months.

Regardless, jobs continued to disappear nationwide in the Services industry in August. The downturn of 0.7 percent for the month was nevertheless an improvement of the year-on-year slide which had been registered during the previous month of July, -1.1 percent.