UNIONS RING UNEMPLOYMENT ALARM BELLS

UGT secretary Manuel Pelarda said that the March unemployment figures were particularly worrying because over the years, it has been traditionally a time when people start picking up work and therefore the number of jobless begins to fall. “With the start of the tourist season having been put back, the trend has been broken,” said Pelarda. The Workers Commission (CCOO) also sounded alarm bells yesterday by pointing to the “rocketing unemployment figures” amongst the foreign population of the Balearic Islands. The Commission claimed that it soared by 81.01 percent last month in respect of March in 2008. It simultaneously called on the government to focus on policies which will secure more jobs for people and on the guarantee of unemployment benefit for those who are unable to work. Currently, Central Government has a budget allocated to providing benefit for the jobless but it is not without limit. Pelarda said that because the Balearics is a region which depends heavily on the Tourist industry for its income, “there is only a fixed amount of time in which people have to work the required number of months to secure their unemployment benefit through the winter.” This cycle is now under threat, warned Pelarda. He added: “We have to remember the jobless who are currently receiving benefit but when they run out of those funds which have been designated for a specific period of time, they won't be able to claim anything else.” To emphasize how grave the situation has become, Pelarda pointed to the large number of families who are not able to claim any benefit in spite of being in need of it. He called on the government to invest in public works and share out the small amount of employment that becomes available.

In stark contrast to mounting concerns over lack of jobs in the Balearics, the Central Government Ministry for Employment in Madrid reported yesterday that the Islands were the region of Spain where unemployment rose the least in March this year - 1.06 percent more than in February, a figure which is more than 2 decimal points less than the national average. There are now, nevertheless, 75'153 people without work in the Balearics.