News
UNEMPLOYMENT FIGURES SLOWLY START TO IMPROVE
Contributor / 2009-06-05 09:38:08
The PSOE party are hoping that the latest employment statistics will have given them a boost in the European elections. Spanish jobless claims last month fell for the first time in over a year, prompting government officials to hazard the idea that the country’s most severe economic slump in living memory may have reached its lowest point and now be on the up.
The Labor Ministry said last Tuesday that the number of registered unemployed fell by 24,741, or 0.68 percent, in May from the previous month to 3.62 million. That was the first drop in jobless claims in 14 months. “We are aware that we cannot read into this figure that we have got over the difficult situation we are in, but there are signs, after a sharp downturn in employment, that the pace of the deterioration is slowing,” the secretary general for employment, Maravillas Rojo, said. Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero said the figures were “encouraging” but urged “caution,” warning that “difficult” months still lay ahead.
In a more upbeat vein, Industry Minister Miguel Sebastián said, “I believe it would not be exaggerating to say we’re beginning to see the start of the end of the crisis.” Jaime Mayor Oreja, who headed the opposition Popular Party’s campaign for the European Parliament elections this Sunday, dismissed the positive “interpretation,” claiming that the ruling Socialists “always spin a tale.”
Tags: Crisis, Unemployment
Del.icio.us
Digg
Menéame
Technorati
Yahoo
Facebook
MSN Reporter
