So many jobs are ones with temporary contracts. | Archive

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Responding to the latest unemployment figures, the UGT union says that there is a challenge to ensure that quality employment is created in order that the benefits of economic recovery "reach the people".

With unemployment down by 11% over January 2016, Ana Landero of the UGT accepts that there is a continuing improvement in the Balearics. However, labour market behaviour is not ideal and is repeating the pattern of the past. She specifically identifies the comparatively low number of permanent contracts as being less than desirable: 85% of contracts in January were temporary.

She notes that to the number of those registered unemployed at the end of last month - 66,716 - have to be added employees who are on "fijo discontinuo" contracts. There are some 60,000 of these employees. They are not currently working but are not classified as unemployed.

A fall in unemployment in the construction industry is, she argues, a factor in the Balearics having been the only region not to have registered an increase in unemployment last month.

The union has been insisting that the benefits of economic recovery need to be invested intelligently. Profit should be channelled towards creating quality employment and compliance with collective agreements. The recovery must also help to create a new model of job opportunities that goes beyond sun-and-beach tourism.

The Balearics was the only Spanish region to register a decrease in unemployment in January compared with December. The figure was only small though: 192 fewer unemployed.