During May and especially in June the Balearic Govern substantially reduced the restrictions on different economic sectors, with the restaurant industry being one of the most emblematic cases. This de-escalation has given wings to the recovery of employment on the islands. The second quarter of this year closed with 562,300 people in employment, according to the Labour Force Survey (EPA) published last Thursday, which represents a growth of 12% compared to the first quarter, and of almost 9.8% compared to the same period last year (when the population was being affected by confinement).
562,300 Number of people with emloyment
Employment has grown in the Balearic Islands by 12% over the first quarter of the year, the sharpest rise in the country, and 9.8% compared to the same period of 2020, a rate only surpassed by Murcia and Cantabria.
100,600 Unemployed in the second quarter
The number of unemployed in the islands fell by 13.9% compared to the first quarter of the year, with only Murcia showing a more pronounced reduction, although it increased by 3.6% compared to the same dates in 2020. The Balearic unemployment rate thus stands at 15.2%.
Both percentages place the archipelago in the top places for job creation. In the case of the 12% quarterly rate, no other autonomous region comes close (the Spanish average is 2.4% growth), while the 9.8% year-on-year rate is second only to Murcia’s 9.9% and at the same level as Cantabria, as highlighted yesterday by the Minister of Employment and the Director General of Employment, Iago Negueruela and Llorenç Pou respectively, who also pointed out the effort made to ensure that this year there is a tourist season, although it is “complex and difficult”, which explains why the economic recovery is stronger in the archipelago than in other autonomous regions.
This figure of people with employment places this second quarter of 2021 only below the figures for 2018 and 2019, as highlighted.
Another aspect highlighted by those responsible in the Ministry of Labour is that two out of three new jobs created over the past year are of an indefinite nature, although it was not hidden that the Balearic temporality is still too high.
With regard to unemployment, the EPA assigns the Balearic Islands the figure of 100,600 unemployed, with a fall of 13.9% over the first three months of this year, a rate that is only surpassed by the 18.4% drop in Murcia.
With respect to the spring of 2020, there was an increase of 3.5% in Balearic unemployment, which according to Pou is explained by the fact that a year ago citizens were confined, which prevented them from looking for a job and, consequently, from being listed as unemployed, making the figure for those dates very low.
In any case, this figure puts the Balearic unemployment rate at almost 15.2%, just one tenth below the state average, compared to 18.9% in the first quarter of the year. One of the shadows is that in the case of those under 25 years, the unemployment rate is 43.4%, up from 38.1% of the first quarter.
By sex, the unemployment rate for men is almost 13.9%, while that of women is close to 16.7%.
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