Spain Regains Half of Jobs Lost During the Recession

Spain Regains Half of Jobs Lost During the Recession

The Spanish recovery of 2016 is expected to continue into 2017, and things are already off to a good start as the Spanish Labour Ministry recently released data showing that Spain has regained 1.7 million of the 3.5 million jobs that were lost when the country was hit by recession.

Spain continues its recovery with many jobs being created

Over half a million Spanish people found work during 2016. This is the most people that have found work in a single year in Spain in over a decade, and it’s a great sign of the success Spain has seen following post-recession reforms and adapting to the changing European economy.

Labour Minister Fátima Báñez revealed that the number of Spanish people who are considered to be unemployed fell by 390,534 in 2016, which is the highest amount ever. Báñez said that the year was filled with confidence and hope and, while there is still some distance to go, jobs will continue to be created in Spain thanks to all the effort everyone is putting in.

It’s incredible to look at the most recent employment charts for Spain. The amount of Spaniards who are officially classed as employees and have a social security number started to dip in 2008, reaching a low of 16.2 million during 2013. There has been an encouraging rise since then with over 18 million Spaniards expected to be in work during 2017; which would be the highest figure since 2009; before the recession really hit the country.

With the economy growing by 3% last year, and a further 3% growth expected this year, there’s a lot of optimism to go around. The end of the 10-month political deadlock has also contributed to this optimism as well as introducing a government that will need to know the value of compromising.

There may be some sceptics who are worried about how the Socialists and Podemos could prevent the labour reforms that Mariano Rajoy was able to introduce in his last term, but there are also many economists suggesting that the country will not need such reforms to succeed anyway.

It certainly looks like the next step for living in Spain is to continue with the current course. Báñez is suggesting that the PP government could come together to discuss how the labour reforms could be “improved”, and promising that the government would not retract any of their changes to the law; such as simplifying the hiring and firing process.