Economy

Record number of employed in October

A waiter on a terrace working.

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma06/11/2018 14:52

In October there were 525,444 people in employment in the Balearics, the highest figure ever for an October and indicative, it is believed, of a lengthening of the tourism season. The number of people working in the hospitality sector last month was around 50% higher than was the case ten years ago.

Presenting the figures, the employment director-general Llorenç Pou observed that job creation is continuing at a good pace. In October there was a 3.12% rise in the number of people registered with social security compared with last year.

The Balearics have experienced six years of employment growth. As an indication of the recovery in jobs, there were over thirteen per cent more people registered with social security than in October 2008.

There are also encouraging signs in respect of the quality of employment. In September there was an eight per cent increase in full-time employment contracts compared with 2017, which took the total to 269,894. This figure is 46,000 higher than before economic crisis. At the same time, temporary contracts fell by 1,477.

In overall terms, 35.4% of jobs were temporary, a decrease from 38.1% in 2017. Pou accepts that this figure is still too high and so it is essential to keep working on reducing it.

Unemployment in October was 50,217, which was 2.3% lower than October 2017. However, a 23% increase in unemployment from September to October this year was the highest in the country.