This month 134,660 more workers contributed to Social Security and there were 98,265 fewer unemployment benefit filings, which is a sign that the summer job season could be stronger than last year. Even though the country is waiting patiently for good news on the jobs front, to say that employment figures from March, April and May are showing a new upward trend is like cheating in solitaire.
Rajoy's attempt to connect these data with the success of his economic policy is overly optimistic. And he's running the unnecessary risk of contradicting himself if job numbers fall off again after August. It seems certain that we are going to finish the year better off than we started it, although zero growth will make it difficult to create more jobs and reduce unemployment further. The May hiring bonanza, which could potentially extend to June and July, is a seasonal blip and not the start of a long-term trend.
Temporary contract hiring had dropped to a new low and nearly half off all new Social Security contributions are coming from temporary hotel jobs. There are also new seasonal workers in the construction industry and agriculture (the summer harvest has started). Unemployment it lowest in the regions with the most active tourist industries, which indicates that this industry continues to thrive despite ongoing economic crisis.
The government should not sit by complacently and use a temporary and seasonal improvement in national unemployment to avoid deepening its labor reforms and promoting the Single Market Act. Redundancy continues to be a major problem that puts up a dangerous wall beween people who have a job and the more than 6 million workers who have lost theirs. Implementing a single hiring contract and active labor policies that improve workers' ability to prepare for and access jobs are solutions that the government has not tried to use yet, but should if it wants to improve the labor situation.
