The list of jobless workers registered with SPEE (Servicio Público de Empleo Estatal), Spain's national job service program, rose by 74,900 people in November. This high number hurts unemployment figures a lot. And social security filings have dropped by 205,678.
These figures indicate that as official jobs disappear, the underground economy is growing. This is a major threat to Spain's pension system, which has seen the number of workers contributing to it drop to the level they were ten years ago. The system has had to borrow 12 billion euros from its cash reserves in order to pay retirees their pensions. Many of the jobs lost were in the public sector; 192,385 government workers lost their jobs this past year. But the threat also extends to the private sector. The hotel industry, for example, cut 80,000 jobs in November and the construction industry continues to lay off workers.
While the job situation worsens, Spain continues to deal with a struggling Iberia airlines and labor restructuring in the banking sector. Among the many struggles right now, unemployment is the most serious that the government has to confront, because the number of jobless workers is steadily approaching six million. Rising unemployment could further deflate public morale, because nobody can be sure that the government's plans to slow job losses will work. Rising unemployment is tied to falling consumption, economic stagnation and an imbalanced budget. These factors will not improve unless companies can create jobs.
November unemployment and social security figures show a stark reality: there is little reason for optimism, and 2013 will be another tough year. De Guindos is right when he says that we have hit the worst part of the recession.