The number of people out of work at the end of January stood at 11,508, a rise of 14.5 per cent from twelve months ago. Despite this long-term climb, January put an end to an eight-month upward trend which had seen the number of people out of work rise each month since May. However, January bucked this tendency, with a four per cent fall from the previous month.
During 2009 a total of 17.19 per cent of the working population did not have work all-year round, a far cry from the decade’s lowest quota which came in 2001 with just 7.91 per cent of the population out of work.
However, Balearic Employment Minister, Joana Barcelo, tried to remain positive claiming the worst was behind us and the figures would start to improve.
Despite the slightly positive data on the island, across Spain it was a different story with 124,890 more people joining the dole queue in January, taking the total of unemployed people in the country to 4,048,493, the highest level for fourteen years.
The news sparked the biggest fall in the Spanish stock market since November 2008 when interest rates were slashed. The Ibex fell by 5.94 per cent on Thursday sparked by fears of a slow-down in the recovery in the rest of Europe and US. However, whilst most markets recorded losses during the day Spain was hit the worst as the latest unemployment figures were released, added to comments from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) about just how serious the crisis remains within Spain.
All of the major stocks were affected including Banco Santander (-9.4%), BBVA (-7.54%), Telefónica (-3.44%), and Iberdrola (-4.71%).
