Unions warn employment level in Catalonia is still below pre-crisis level

Barcelona (CNA).- The economy in Catalonia is growing, but employment levels are still far behind those of the pre-crisis period. That is according to a new report published on Wednesday by one of the main unions in the country, UGT, which warns that Catalonia still needs to create 400,000 new jobs to reach the levels of employment that it had before the crisis. There are currently 501,785 people unemployed in Catalonia, although levels have been falling consistently in the past 24 months. Catalonia also leads unemployment reduction in Spain, and had in July 2015 some 66,446 less unemployed than in the same month in 2014, an 11.7% reduction. This is, however, not enough, warn both the government and the unions.

The UGT report published this Wednesday states that contracts offered nowadays are often temporary, part-time and usually last shorter than before. On these conditions, warns the Secretary of UGT Camil Ros, “there is no economic recovery”. In an interview with the CNA, the Secretary General of the CCOO, Joan Carles Gallego, stated that he agreed with this view. “We cannot deny that there is a recovery from the macroeconomic point of view, but this is not perceived in the working conditions and in people’s lives”, he said.

According to Gallego, the recovery is “very fragile” and depends largely on international factors such as the situation in the Eurozone. In addition, Gallego thinks that without “better working conditions, stability and decent salaries” the recovery is “very unlikely” to be a success. “It will only benefit some in society”, he added with regret.

The UGT report states that only the services sector has almost recovered the 2007 levels of employment. Industry, on the other hand, is still in bad shape, with 160,000 less workers than eight years ago, which means that during that period from then until now 26% of jobs in the industrial sector have been lost. Despite this, levels are starting to grow again somewhat, with the number of contracts in this sector rising 2.16% in annual terms in the first half of 2015.

One of the sectors worst affected by the crisis, which was mainly due to the housing and banking bubbles, was the construction sector. Up to 56% of jobs in this sector where lost between 2007 and 2015, but the figures are now showing a recovery. The number of jobs has grown by 6.1% in the last year, with 10,000 new workers being taken on. Agriculture is also recovering with 6,277 new jobs having been created in the past year.