Spain 2004: employment rises and unemployment falls

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In Spain 461,300 jobs were created in 2004, two out of three of them being occupied by women. The employment and participation rates are the highest in the last 30 years, with a participation rate of over 45% for women. The construction sector has shown the greatest growth of jobs, followed by services and industry.

In comparison with 2003 the number of unemployed fell by 120,000 to just over two million, and is now 10.38%, eight decimal points less than in the previous year. However, in this case women came out worse than men, with a reduction of 54,000 and 66,000 respectively. Unemployment fell most among the under-25s and first-time job-seekers. By sectors, the greatest reduction was in the construction sector, followed by industry. The reduction in the service sector was only 0.84%.

The Minister of Labour, Jesús Caldera, presented these figures as an excellent result that 'exceeds the forecasts', not only with regard to the amount but also in terms of quality, because the temporary employment rate fell by 3 decimal points to 30.9%. According to the minister, this situation sets us in the right direction to meet the objectives of the 'Lisbon Agenda'.

The trade unions made a positive assessment of the situation, but pointed out the problems that remain. The Trade Union Confederation of Workers’ Commissions (Comisiones Obreras, CCOO) stated that the participation rate is still low, particularly among women. Also, there is still a high level of precarious employment among young people due to the high temporary employment rate. The growth of employment continues to depend greatly on construction, which represents a risk if this sector declines. The General Workers’ Confederation (Unión General de Trabajadores, UGT) put forward the same arguments, insisting that the social dialogue must be used to foster a new model of production geared towards not only more employment but also better employment.

The main opposition party, the People's Party (Partido Popular, PP), stressed that these figures are the result of the economic policy carried out by them when they were in power. The United Left (Izquierda Unida, IU), which provides parliamentary support to the Socialist government, stressed that the high level of unstable employment is 'a time bomb' that threatens economic growth, without forgetting that Spain still has the highest unemployment rate in the EU-15.

The Spanish labour market still has two main problems that may reverse the current progress because a solid path towards solving them has not been found. One of these is the unemployment rate of the women. It is true that their participation rate has increased, but they still encounter many more obstacles than men and have double their unemployment rate (7.55% compared with 14.39%). The other is the maintenance of a very high proportion of 'poor employment', which is affecting young workers until an increasing age and therefore represents a serious risk of social disintegration.

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