Numbers out of work still rising

According to the Association, there were 10'500 people in the Balearics actively looking for work in the first quarter of this year, but can't find any, a 37 percent increase in the number of long-term unemployed in comparison with the same quarter in 2011.

Agett says that 79'400 of those out of work in the first quarter of this year were under 34 years of age, 48.4 percent of the total which in the Balearic Islands stands at 163'900 people.

During the same period, the unemployment rate for this young age group was running at 39.2 percent in the region, seven times higher than at the start of the crisis. The rate of 39.2 percent is considerably higher for the under 34 age group than it was for the country as a whole in the first quarter, 33 percent.

Household austerity
As part of its report, the Association said that 15.6 percent of homes in the Balearic Islands have all their members capable of working out of a job, higher than the national average of 13.3%. However, in terms of absolute number as opposed to population percentage, the regions of Andalucia and Valencia account for more than 35 percent of the total unemployment figures in the country and are responsible for a third of the growth in jobless figures. One in every three Andalucians is out of a job, and half of them have been looking for work for over a year.

Government records meanwhile show that unemployment in Spain has reached a new historic record; 24.44 percent of the working population (5.6 million people) are without a job. One in every four Spaniards who can work and is actively seeking employment, can't find any.

The region of the country where unemployment increased the most (by 3.5%) during the first quarter of this year was Extremadura. Its unemployment rate now runs at 32.1 percent pro rata the head of population, the highest in Spain.

The Balearics is in second place with an increase of 2.8% to 28%, followed by Castilla-La Mancha where jobless figures rose by 2.7% in the first quarter to 27.2%.

The Balearics is one of seven regions of the country where unemployment rates are higher than the national average. The others are Valencia, Andalusia, Extremadura, Murcia, the Canary Islands, and Castilla-La Mancha.

The regions of Andalusia, Catalonia, Valencia and Madrid account for 61.2 percent of the number of people under 34 who are without a job. But Madrid managed to maintain already-existing jobs for the age group. Job losses in the region were -8.7% less than the national average.