unemployment

In the last months, the Catalan branch of the Conservative People’s Party (PPC) raised controversy in breaking a taboo in Catalan-level politics: using immigration as a political tool. Many actions were performed earlier linking immigration with insecurity. such as spreading leaflets. Yesterday a videogame where the PPC's leader was shooting at illegal immigrants was put online and, after the complains, shut down. Last week, the PPC’s President and candidate, Alícia Sánchez-Camacho proposed an “integration contract” for immigrants that, if not respected, will enable public powers to expel immigrants. The rest of the parties accused the PPC of being xenophobic and populist.

Unemployment has increased in the service and agricultural sectors. However, it decreased in the industry and construction sectors. Unemployement has increased throughout Catalonia, although Lleida is the most affected province. Unemployment has also increased in the rest of Spain.

The 3rd term (July-September) ended with less people unemployed in Catalonia, concretely 6,700 people less. The unemployment rate has decreased 3 decimals and is now 17.41% of the active population. In addition, Catalonia represents half of all the new jobs created in Spain this term, with 34,500 jobs created. It is the first time in the last year that unemployment has dropped for the whole of Spain.

700 workers from the Martorell factory next to Barcelona will temporarily lose their jobs. They will return to work in June of 2011. The company still has to negotiate the conditions with unions.

The multinational Japanese company Sony plans to leave Catalonia, but the industry is seeking alternatives for employees that will soon be out of work. The company plans to close its television factory next to Barcelona, which will leave 1,030 people out of work

August ended with 555,894 unemployed people registered within the Catalan Public Employment Service (SOC). 4 months in a row of continuous decreases has come to an end. This figure means 16,703 more unemployed people, 3.10% more than those who registered in July.

According to data from the Catalan Ministry of Employment, the number of unemployed people receiving additional job training education is 49.6%, exceeding the European average by 16.3%. Among young people, many are dropping out of the courses to return to formal education.

As a result of the economic crisis, 56% of young people in Catalonia can be considered Neet

In July, the total number of Catalan jobless stands at 539,191, thanks to the creation of service sector summer jobs

Some young workers are becoming stuck into long-term unemployment, with little future perspectives. In addition, long-term unemployment has overtaken short-term unemployment.

The plan started 2 years ago to foster quality employment. More than 160,000 people have benefited from the programme, although only 10,000 found a quality job.

This afternoon the Spanish Parliament will vote on the labour market reform approved by Zapatero?s Government last Wednesday. The reform already entered into force but it can be modified or blocked today by the Parliament. Last Thursday, the President of

Prime Minister Zapatero needs the votes from other parties to pass his Labour Market reform. Artur Mas, President of the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Party (CiU) has affirmed today that his party will not block the reform in the Spanish Parliament. Ci

In the rest of Spain, unemployment has decreased 1.84% in the last month. However, both Catalan and Spanish figures remain at highest rates of the last decade: about 575,000 Catalans are unemployed. In overall Spain, about 4.07 million people are jobless.