19/11/2013 00:00
TW
0
STAFF REPORTER THE Balearic Islands is the only region of the country where unemployment numbers are not going to go up next year in comparison with 2009, said a labour market report published yesterday by national savings bank Caja España. The report added that the Islands will begin to show signs of a “real recovery.” The numbers of jobless next year in the Balearics will represent 17 percent of its working population, below the national average of 19.6 percent and a long way from the figure of 28 percent forecast for Andalucia which has the highest unemployment rate in the country. Nearly 1 of every 3 people in the region will be without work following the total collapse of the construction and public services industries.

At the other end of the scale, the Balearics is also far removed from the Basque Country which has the lowest level of percentage of regional population without work in Spain, 12 percent. Although this will go up to 12.7 percent next year, said the report, the region will still have the shortest dole queue in the country. Caja España also warned that the economic situation in the Canary Islands is “extreme” in the negative sense of the word after severe downturns in all aspects of business activity.