• Low increase in unemployed in January, but Spain’s jobless rate still 20.8% •
Relatively positive unemployment figures for January released by the Spanish government this week have not buoyed the spirits of organised labour, with Spanish union leaders pointing out that employment figures nationwide have been boosted largely by the increase in temporary contracts for short-term employment.
January’s rise of just 57,247 in the number of unemployed in Spain represented an improvement over the average 136,000 increase registered across the past 8 years, but Spain’s annunal unemployment rate remains at 20.8 percent, ranking Spain as the second-worst employment market in all Europe after Greece.
In Catalonia, union spokespersons noted that 84 percent of all new labour contracts registered in January were for short-term employment, while labour leaders in Andalusia pointed to 2015’s greatest annual increase ever recorded in temporary work contracts as evidence of the continued precarious job market in that region.
► Read the Full Story in Spanish at La Vanguardia and Europa Press …
► Read the Full Story in English at Spanish News Today …
