THE monthly figure for the number of unemployed people in the Balearics managing to find jobs was 9 percent higher last month than it was in August last year, the regional government reported yesterday.
The increase in the number of people finding jobs applies to all the Balearic Islands but is apparently particularly noticeable on Ibiza and Formentera where the year-on-year figure has risen by 15 percent.
During the first 8 months of 2009, the monthly average for numbers of unemployed finding jobs stood at 5'107 but for the same period this year, the number has risen to 5'566.
In a statement, the regional Employment ministry said that there has been a noticeable increase in the number of people finding jobs in the Balearics despite the continued existence of an economic crisis.
In fact, the ministry claimed that the monthly average for people finding jobs at the moment is greater than that recorded prior to the onset of the crisis. To illustrate the point, the statement revealed that the monthly average for people finding jobs in 2006 was just 4'413 and rose to 4'337 in 2007.
The ministry went one stage further by saying that based on data from job centres around the islands, it can conclude that the monthly average for people finding jobs in the Balearics has reached a record high.
These details, said the ministry show that the policies that the Balearic government has employed in recent years - training, the promotion of self-employment, and market intervention - have proved successful.
Also on the increase, furthered the statement was the number of jobs being taken by those who are on the dole rather than by people who are already gainfully employed in other work. In 2006, the number of jobs during the first 8 months of the year which went to the unemployed was just 13.48 percent of the total, but in 2010 this figure was up to 23.68 percent. In other words, new job opportunities are being taken by the unemployed, confirmed the ministry.