Unfilled jobs in a country
with high unemployment
A growing number of Spanish
firms are reporting to their
respective trade associations that
they are not able to hire staff who
meet their specific needs .
“There is an imbalance between
supply and demand,” says Juan
Carlos Tejera, the head of training
at the CEOE, the association
that represents the business
community across Spain. It’s an
imbalance that the business sector
in 2014 predicted would leave
more than 80,000 jobs unfilled
in Spain over the coming years
given the disconnect between
the education system and the job
market, and that could drag down
productivity and competitiveness
in the process. However, April
was a particularly good month
for the Spanish job market. The
number of people who filed jobless
claims went down by 129,281, the
biggest drop for a single month
in the entire historical series. The
previous record had been set in
June 2013. The total number of
people without a job now stands at
3.57 million. The unemployment
rate in Spain is around 18.7%,
down from the high of 27% in
2013, when the country was in
the grip of a crippling economic
crisis. Despite a recovery and good
growth forecasts, Spain still has
the second-highest jobless rate in
the EU after Greece. For full story
see: El Pais in English.
Bad weather results in 65%
loss of cherry crop.
Storms have damaged the early
cherries in the Vall de Gallinera,
causing them to split so they
will not meet the standards for
marketing internationally. About
65% of the crop is estimated to have
been affected. This is a huge blow