Mariano Rajoy was wrong yesterday when he said that in 2013 no jobs were cut and that salaries have risen. Both official Social Security filings and the Survey of the Working Population (known by the acronym EPA) indicate the opposite.
It is true that we hit bottom in the third quarter of this year, but excessive optimism is counterproductive. The EU said this much recently and has warned the Spanish government that it still has a lot of work to do.
As far as salaries are concerned, signed agreements could have raised them, but how many companies have actually implemented the changes? The reality is that companies and workers have experienced salary reductions and freezing as the nation tries to weather tough economic conditions. Rajoy should not play with the numbers in order to cover up what is really happening in the Spanish labor market.