There was a mixed reception to yesterday’s latest unemployment figures. In the Balearics the number of people out of work remains high, despite some 50,000 people having gone back to work over the past month.
And, many of those people who have found work have done so in the hospitality sector and know that sooner, rather than later, they will out of work again.
The bulk of the newly employed are on short term contracts which poses a whole raft of problems when it comes to claiming state aid.
In fact, Spain, which has one of the worst employment records in Europe, has got to overhaul employment contracts.
For example nurses.
Considering what the medical profession has gone through over the past 18 months I would have thought that reviewing public health care contracts would have been near the top of the government’s list.
The vast majority of nurses in the Balearics and across Spain, whether they have worked for the regional health service for decades or not, are still on rolling six month contracts.
As a result there are numerous cases of nurses who have been working for years having to turn to their parents to act as guarantors when buying a car or a house, it must be extremely embarrassing and humiliating. I think it’s shameful.