Cutbacks, recession see Spain's jobless figures hit historic high

Spain hit an Olympic record on Friday when the unemployment rate soared to an all-time high of 24.63 percent for the second quarter of the year. According to the latest figures released by the National Statistics Institute’s Survey of the Active Population (EPA), 5,693,100 people are out of work.

The Rajoy administration’s severe cutbacks, the ongoing recession and the relaxation of rules governing layoff schemes - known in Spanish as EREs - which make it easier and cheaper for companies to let workers go - are the three factors being blamed for the record number.

Friday’s figure surpasses the previous jobless record of 24.55 percent recorded in 1994, during the country’s last major economic crisis.

There had been slight surges in employment prospects at the end of June and May, as the busy summer tourist season got underway. But the new numbers show that jobs across Spain are getting harder to find.

The biggest losses were in Andalusia, where 23,300 more people were reported without work, and Castilla-La Mancha, where 19,500 jobs were lost during the first three months of the year.

Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría said during a news conference after the weekly Cabinet meeting that there was “no doubt” that the recession was to blame for the poor figures, and that the government had “to continue to make structural reforms” to reduce the deficit and boost production.

“Figures like these push us to strengthen reforms and meet our goal in reducing the deficit,” she said.

This EPA survey is the first to be conducted with the Popular Party (PP) government’s labor reform in full force covering the entire three-month period. The reform went into effect in February.

When asked if the government had plans to tweak the labor reform, Sáenz de Santamaría insisted that the Rajoy administration’s primary goal was to bring down the deficit. However, she said that it was impossible to see any type of results in the seven months since the PP came into office.