HISTORIC DROP IN UNEMPLOYMENT: FAKE NEWS? »
The Government of Spain's good news: Unemployment, which stood at 14.1 % in November 2021, with youth unemployment at a staggering 29.5%, dropped from its 15-year perch of plus-three million jobless to 2.92 million in May 2022. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Labor Minister Yolanda Diaz are elated about the startling phenomenon. Opposition leader Alberto Nuñez Feijóo has accused the Government of massaging the figures.
WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL ABOUT SPAIN’S LABOR REFORM? »
At stake during the ratification of Spain's Labor Reform were the European Union's pandemic reconstruction funds -- the NGEU and MFF packages -- projected to reach €1824.3 billion, and the remedy for the precarious labor situation in Spain due to the structural anomaly in hiring.
TOWARD THE NEW NORMAL, CORONAVIRUS UPDATE IN SPAIN: (2) The Post-State of Emergency & the EU »
At a minimum, there seems to be a willingness among business and labor to work together in order to overcome the extreme social and economic difficulties brought about by the coronavirus pandemic in Spain and in the Eropean Union.
TOWARD THE NEW NORMAL, CORONAVIRUS UPDATE IN SPAIN: (1) The Extension of the State of Emergency, and the Social Pact on Employment Regulation »
Extension of the State of Emergency ~ Desescalada, the gradual easing of Lockdown ~ Social Pact ~ Transition Plan Toward the New Normality ~ ERTEs, the regulation of Temporary Layoffs
SURPRISE SURPRISE! THE EMPLOYERS’ CONFEDERATION IS HAPPY ABOUT PAY HIKE! »
Antonio Garamendi, President of the powerful profit-driven Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations, didn’t seem to be even remotely put out by the 5.5% rise in the national minimum wage that the left-leaning Spanish Government has approved on 22 January 2020. But the Government wants another pay hike in 2021 and it looks like beyond a certain red line the business organizations will no longer play along. The era of a progressive government in Spain has started, after years of conservative rule that consigned 13% of the labor force to working poverty. How long will the new era last?
