Eight per cent of businesses don't expect pre-crisis employment levels

Economic growth in 2021 forecast to be higher in the Balearics than most of Spain

Disinfecting at a terrace in Palma, Mallorca

ERTE has shielded many jobs in Mallorca. | Efe

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma23/01/2021 19:58

According to information from the Balearic Institute of Statistics (Ibestat), eight per cent of business owners do not envisage being able to recover the same number of employees that they had before the crisis. This is a lower percentage than a nationwide 18.65%.

Economic forecasts from various sources point to the Balearics being one of the regions of Spain with highest economic growth this year and next, which has of course to take into account that the fall in 2020 was one of the greatest. These forecasts do factor in a recovery of tourism, and there are unknowns surrounding this in 2021.

If the loss of employment, as suggested by Ibestat, will not be as great as in the country as a whole, the recovery is obviously not going to be immediate. Around 60% of business in the Balearics don't expect there to be recovery until next year.

A great number of the jobs lost in the Balearics have been temporary ones. Employees with permanent contracts, including those with 'fijo discontinuo', have been protected, although if businesses were to have to close, this situation would change.

For the employers associations, CAEB and Pimem, ERTE isn't enough. There needs to be more tax assistance and direct aid. Carmen Planas, the CAEB president, says that solvency is the problem for many businesses. The president of Pimem, Jordi Mora, wants greater flexibility for small businesses, which need to adapt their workforces in order to avoid having to close.