How has the autonomous community evolved in the last five-year period 2016-2021? With the outbreak of the pandemic in March last year, the perceptions of the Balearic Islands have been marked by the impact of the health emergency. Unemployment and growing job instability due to dependence on tourism, which continues to be weighed down by Covid although it has begun to recover, are the main concerns of the islanders. Six out of ten Balearic believe that the temporality, so linked to the tourism sector, will get even worse.
This is what emerges from the investigation carried out by Quaderns Gadeso in a special edition on reaching number 400 of its analysis of the socio-economic reality of the Balearic Islands. April marked the twentieth anniversary of its first publication..
After the increase in unemployment and job instability, which has been the most worrying issue for citizens throughout the five-year period, the following concerns analysed on the islands are, in this order, economic problems, which are also growing, the future of their children (which is on the rise), the political parties and the political class, although this is decreasing, and public services, which are seen as a growing source of unease.
EVOLUTION
Fear of being unemployed and not find a job again
Already since 2016, Gadeso points out, employment problems and economic difficulties have had “an almost absolute prominence” in the concerns of the Balearics. There is fear not only of an increase in unemployment, but also of becoming unemployed and not being able to return to work. More than a decade ago, in 2009, it emerged that those related to the political class were linked to corruption when the most notorious cases broke out. Today it has turned into a lack of confidence in their ability to solve our problems, in addition to the political tension and the lack of understanding between the parties.
Concerning the future of their children, the high rates of school failure and dropout rates and “the practical impossibility” of finding a stable job are worrying. With regard to public services, the report laments above all the cuts in public services and the loss of quality that this entails in health, education and pensions; in other words, “the pillars of the welfare state” are “in danger”.
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.