Palma.The runaway rate of unemployment in Spain is hitting women particularly hard here in the Balearics.
To mark International Women's Day today, data was released yesterday showing that 24.25 percent of the active female population in the Balearics is unemployed.
This, according to the unions, is the highest the regional female rate of unemployment has been for the past five years and they do not see the level dropping for the near future.
Despite the decline in unemployment in the Balearics last month, even the business sector was forced to admit the fall was much smaller than it had expected, the unions fear that unemployment may begin to rise again because the tourist season is going to be a relatively late starter because Easter falls so early at the end of this month.
So, the service sector, one of the region's biggest employers, is not going to get going until towards the end of April or even early May.
But, the Secretary General for Social Policy and Equal Rights for the CCOO General Workers' Commission, Eva Cerdeiriña, said the biggest problem is that the recession and the fight for jobs has served to increase sexual inequality in the work place and that women are finding themselves on the losing side.
And, not only is there a growing discrepancy between job opportunities, the inequality in the wage structure continues.
According to the Balearic Council for Young People, young women are finding it the toughest, especially during the current recession and are looking abroad for work.
Yesterday, the opposition parties cricitised the ruling centre right PP for not doing enough to help women find work and are hoping that the Partido Popular will use today to announce some form of positive action.