570,000 jobs have been lost in Catalonia since 2007, according to the trade union UGT

Barcelona (ACN).- On Wednesday, the General Workers Union (UGT) issued a report stating that the Catalan economy has experienced a loss of 567,099 jobs between 2007 and 2013. The figure represents a 16.86% decrease on the total number of jobs that existed in Catalonia 6 years ago. At the report’s presentation, the UGT’s Secretary for Union Policy, Camil Ros, warned that the figures do not show “a recovery of job creation”. Ros criticised the Spanish Government for “lying” and presenting macroeconomic figures in a way that “do not correspond to reality” since there are still no signs of economic recovery. “At most, the job destruction has slowed down [its pace]”, he added. In the summer of 2007, at the start of the economic crisis, the Catalan labour market registered 3,363,531 jobs, taking into account both independent workers and those registered in the so-called general modality at the Social Security. However, in June 2013, there were 2,813,072 jobs in Catalonia, according to data from the Spanish Employment Ministry.

567,099 jobs have been lost in Catalonia between the summer of 2007 and June 2013, a 16.86% drop. Furthermore, in the last few months, since the Spanish Government’s Labour Market Reform was adopted in February 2012, the amount of jobs has continued to reduce. Between June 2011 and the June 2012, 75,166 jobs were lost. Between June 2012 and June 2013, the number of jobs that disappeared was quite similar, with a loss of 71,490 positions.

Regarding economic sectors, the UGT study showed that the construction sector has been the one that has seen the highest reduction. Between 2007 and 2013, more than half of the existing jobs within the construction sector were lost. Exactly 227,816 jobs disappeared, which represents 57.7% of the jobs that existed in the construction sector 6 years ago. In the same period, 171,318 jobs have been lost in the industrial sector, a 28.1% reduction from the 2007 figures. In addition, the primary sector (agriculture, livestock breeding and fishing) experienced a reduction of 10,667 jobs from 2007 to 2013, an equivalent of 24.5% of the total number of the existing jobs in this sector at the start of the crisis. Finally, the service sector lost 6.8% of the jobs it had in 2007, which means having lost 157,298 positions.

Ros warns about “a summer mirage”

The UGT’s Secretary for Union Policy regretted the “devastating” figures showing the shrinking in employment compiled by the study presented on Wednesday. Ros explained that the positive figures from the export and tourism sectors are not enough to stop the destruction. According to him, the economy “neither is in a recovery phase, nor have we reached the worst point [of the economic crisis]”. Therefore, he contradicts “the official speeches” about the GDP and the unemployment rate. Ros warned that the recent macroeconomic data is generating “a summer mirage”, conditioned by the excellent behaviour of the tourism sector in Catalonia over the last few months.