THE NUMBER of people filing for unemployment benefits in Spain shot up by nearly 100,000 in September, a surprisingly big increase even in a month that tends to be bad for workers as vacation season contracts expire.
Tuesday’s figures from the Labour Department are likely to stoke renewed worries over the Spanish economy at a time the government is trying to appease investors fretting over its strategy to deal with hefty borrowings.
The department blamed the anemic state of Spain’s economy and the effect of austerity measures on the job market for the bigger than usual increase in September claims. It added that government’s forecast that 2011 would end with net job creation, albeit small, will probably be wrong.
The official forecast is for GDP growth of 1.3 per cent for 2011, but this figure is now largely being treated with scepticism.
‘Disturbing’ increase
The department acknowledged the jobless claims increase was disturbing, as it was nearly twice as big as the increase posted in September 2010.
Deputy Labour Minister Mari Luz Rodriguez said that in recent weeks the ministry had seen daily increases of 10,000 in claims for jobless benefits, and called the numbers “tough and negative.”
The Labour Department says the increase of 95,817 raises the total to 4,226,744. That’s an increase of 2.32 per cent from August. It was also the biggest jump for a September since the department’s current accounting system was launched in 1996.
Spain’s overall jobless rate is released separately and quarterly and stands at just under 21 per cent, a eurozone high.
The governing Socialists have called general elections for 20 November but polls suggest they will be defeated by the conservative opposition Popular Party, which might even win an absolute majority in Parliament.
Government cost-cutting measures are meeting with resistance, most lately among school teachers.
Madrid-area secondary school teachers — at schools for kids ranging in 12 to 18 — went on strike today for the fourth time since the school year began last month to protest job cuts ordered by the conservative regional government.
In Spain, education is run at the regional level, and Madrid and others run by the Popular Party, are having teachers spend more hours in the classroom this year. That means less hiring of stand-by teachers who do not have civil servant status of full-blown teachers.
Teachers unions say students are the ones who come out losing most: smaller teaching staffs mean fewer extracurricular activities and tutoring sessions and the like. Another stoppage was scheduled for today, then again on 20 October.
The labour union UGT said about 70 per cent of the Madrid area’s roughly 20,000 secondary schools honoured today’s strike.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say