Jon Clarke (Publisher & Editor)UNEMPLOYMENT in Spain has hit 20 per cent for the first time for over a decade.
Official figures confirmed that 4,612,700 people – one in five Spaniards – were jobless at the end of March.
The number of people on the dole is the highest in the eurozone, according to national statistics agency INE.
“Everyone I know is unemployed, on the verge of losing their job or their benefits are running out. The truth is the very situation is very bad.”
Finance Minister Elena Salgado described the figure released as “very high”.
But she also pointed out that fewer jobs are now being lost than last year – some 290,000 in the most recent quarter compared to 800,000 last year.
Spain, once Europe’s biggest creator of jobs, has been in recession since 2008.
And Francisco Moreno, standing outside an unemployment office in Madrid, said: “Everyone I know is unemployed, on the verge of losing their job or their benefits are running out. The truth is the very situation is very bad.”
The jobless news came just after Spain’s credit rating was downgraded from AA+ to AA this week.
Europe’s fourth largest economy had previously enjoyed more than 10 years of uninterrupted growth before the global recession struck.
It will only get worse if they keep knocking houses down.
From my experience of working with the local Spanish a lot are claiming their unemployment and working cash in hand.I recently was after a new waiter and out of the 30 to apply for the job 75% ask if they could work without contract for cash in hand as they didnt want to lose their “Paro”.
Zapatero is going to raise the IVA in July by 2 points and this wouldnt be necessary if the law was enforcered when it came to working with out a contract or paying tax on property rented out(long term).
i would guess that at least half a million people are working on the Costa Del Sol for cash in hand (at least 20 % of them claiming unemployment) and at least 90% of landlords dont declare their earnings from rentals.
Zapatero should worry about these problems before he even considers raising the IVA. here’s some maths Prime Minister:
500,000 people paying 250 euros a month social security is 125,000,000 a month and if you could just get 50% of that it would be 750,000,000 a year. come on Jose chop chop there is money to collect