Half of the people out of work receive no benefit

The figures published today by the Spanish Department for Employment show that there were 218.862 people unemployed in the Basque Country in December, 7.116 down on November and 2.165 on the previous year.

The unemployment rate stood at 17.1%, which is 6.2 points over the average unemployment rate for the EU-28, with the rate only being higher in Croatia, the Spanish State and Greece. The figures are revealing: the greater the cuts and reforms are, the higher the unemployment rate is.

Even more concerning is the situation of social neglect that the unemployed find themselves, as 48.8% of the people registered as out of work do not receive any type of unemployment benefit. Only one out of every three of them receive contributory benefit (30.6%) and 20.6% collect some type of subsidy or job seeker’s allowance.

Another figure highlighting the job insecurity is that 93.9% of the employment contracts signed in 2013 were temporary.

It is regrettable that there are politicians in this social emergency situation who are optimistic about the fact that unemployment has dropped slightly. No claims should be made in this climate that we are witnessing the recovery of employment, while the same policy of cuts and restructuring continues to be applied and which is increasing poverty and job insecurity to extreme levels.

The work and social situation continues to worsen in the Basque Country and only organisation and fighting will change the policies that have resulted in this situation.