Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Unemployment in Spain rises again

Unemployment in Spain, which has Europe’s highest jobless rate, rose for the third month in October as the economy struggles to recover from an almost two-year recession.
The number of people registering for unemployment benefits rose by 68,213, or 1.7 percent, from September to 4.09 million, the
Labor Ministry in Madrid said in an e-mailed statement today.
Given that the construction industry in Spain looks to be well and truly screwed, at least for a few years, it's quite difficult to see where they are going to create many new jobs from. There aren't that many industries in Spain that have a true international appeal or weight, aside from a small number of high profile ones - Seat, Ferovial, perhaps.
And with this level of unemployment comes a double whammy on the eceonomy - higher benefit payments for all those people, and less spending in the economy, with loans and mortgages under increasing pressure.
Spain’s
unemployment rate, double the European average, fell in the third quarter to 19.8 percent, even as Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said the number should be viewed with “prudence.” The economic recovery probably slowed from July to September, Bank of Spain Governor Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordonez said on Oct. 5, as the government tries to slash the euro region’s third-largest budget deficit with the deepest austerity measures in at least three decades.

No comments: