Unemployment will keep rising until year end, says government

STAFF REPORTER THERE is no escaping the fact that unemployment is going to go on rising until the end of the year, said regional Minister, Joana Barcelo, yesterday. Barcelo was responding to a Parliamentary question on predictions by the Centre for Economic Research (CRE) which claim that there will be 100'000 unemployed in the Balearics by the end of next month. She said that given that unemployment has always risen in the Islands following the end of the tourist season, it is likely that figures are indeed going to keep rising. The Minister said that the “key objective” of her department at the moment is to assist people who have no source of income whatsoever by providing them with direct subsidies and the chance to train for work that they would not otherwise be able to undertake. “We want to make sure,” said the Minister that what is now an employment crisis does not become a social one. Working towards establishing all-year-round tourism in the Islands is one way to give people the chance to have a permanent job, she said.