Figures Show This Was the Best March Ever for Spanish Job Creation

Figures Show This Was the Best March Ever for Spanish Job Creation

Great news for spain as a whole

When it comes to Spanish job creation, all of the projections from economists are positive when it comes to the year ahead. Many experts are confident that Spanish unemployment could dip below 17%; making it the first time this has happened in years.

Data from the Labour Ministry of Spain was published this week that shows why there is such certainty about this recovery. The figures for March show that Spain created more jobs this March than in any other March since records began.

A total of 48,500 Spaniards entered the workforce in March, with the figure soaring above 392,000 for the past 12 months. This equates to everybody in a mid-sized city being given a brand-new job.

Eurostat suggest that the figure could be even higher. They feel that over half a million Spaniards have entered the working world over the past year; which is the equivalent of the entire population of Malaga.

The total amount of Spaniards not working has dropped down to just four million. The most striking thing is that, during the past 12 months, some 1.2 million new jobs were created in the entire 19-member strong Eurozone. This would mean that Spain was responsible for around half of everyone employed during this time period.

There are a wider range of jobs on offer in the country too. The amount of indefinite contracts has risen by 18% across the past year, outperforming growth in the temporary employment sector; which increased 14.5%. This would appear to symbolise a growing confidence in the long-term growth of the country.

As far as industries go; it was the construction sector of Spain that had the best growth in March. The construction sector was responsible for some 2.44% of the jobs created; putting it ahead of every other sector.

Stats Show Interest in Spanish Property among European buyers has Grown by Double Digits

Stats Show Interest in Spanish Property among European buyers has Grown by Double Digits

Brits are still buying property regardless of Brexit uncertainty

Brits have always been the largest single group of foreign buyers of Spanish property. Given that around one-fifth of all Spanish properties sold to non-Spaniards go to Brits, it can be misleading to try and compare other nationalities to British buyers on a like-for-like basis.

That is why the Spanish property portal Kyero has decided to take a different approach across recent months by grouping “Europeans” into a single entity. The results of doing so have been eye-opening.

When Europeans are classed into a single group like this, the data shows that 60% of all inquiries on Spanish property Kyero receives come from Europeans, with the growth since last summer reaching double digits.

The portal has recorded an increase of 25% in leads and enquiries year-on-year (based on the data from February), but the highest spike in growth has come from Europeans.

One interesting statistic is that Spanish property enquiries from British buyers has risen 36% over last February, but sales have only increased by just 1.5% - an anomaly that would appear to be fuelled by Brits taking more of a “wait and see” approach to Spanish property until the issue of the Brexit is sorted. There is certainly a lot of demand for Spanish property from Brits, but they are holding out on actually making the purchases until Article 50 is finished.

This isn’t the case with the Germans, where both interest and sales have increased by over 20% over the past year. Despite Germany facing a general election in 2017, the politics in the country have been stable for a long time, which is reflected by the willingness of the population to purchase overseas property.

Kyero analyst Richard Spiegal understands that Brits are taking a wait and see approach, but is still convinced that would-be buyers will only be mildly inconvenienced by the Brexit. Spiegal said that the majority of British buyers would just be mildly inconvenienced by the Brexit, feeling that it isn’t likely going to change access to travel, the availability, and property rights.

Brits are still interested in buying, but are just in a holding pattern while waiting to see how the Brexit negotiations will unfold. Even though the British are going through a temporary pause for now, the Spanish property market is still on the rise. This is just a further testament to the appeal of the country to people from around the rest of Europe, and indeed the world.

Recent Marches Show How Much Spanish Love to Protest

Recent Marches Show How Much Spanish Love to Protest

Even though the tourism industry is booming, the economy is recovering, and the politicians can’t agree on anything, there are still problems the Spanish wish to air. The two main issues are Catalonia’s bid for independence and bullfighting.

Spanish citizens love to protest and come out in large numbers

It’s estimated that some 540,000 people attended a rally held in Barcelona on Sunday. The rally was held to support the creation of a legally binding independence referendum. The leader of the separatists Carles Puigdemont has set a target of 2017 as the deadline for when Catalans should be given the vote on if they want to be independent from Spain.

Madrid has always stopped these independence efforts and will likely do so this time around. Even though it looks like Catalonia will never win this battle it is never enough to stop them from fighting it. The Catalan National Day is regularly used as a means to drum up more support for the independence bid. There was also a non-legally binding vote held back in 2014 that saw 1.6 million Catalonians say they favoured a split from Spain. This should be all the proof that is needed to secure a vote on the issue.

There is just something about the psyche of the Spanish and Catalan people that sees opposing injustice as a virtue. As such the Spaniards are often marching or protesting for a good portion of the year.

There was another protest held in the capital of Madrid about something that is close to the heart of millions around the world as well as the Spanish. That is the issue of bullfighting. There are many supporters of bullfighting but it looks like the bloodsport has no place in the more modern and liberal Spain, never mind in society as a whole.

Thousands of people marched through Spain declaring that if bullfighting was a representation of Spain they must not be Spanish. This is a valid and interesting interpretation of the history of Spain. Indeed if the Spanish no longer identify with something that has long been used to represent Spain and her people then is it still valid in Spanish society?

It looks like the protests are having an effect and the popularity of bullfighting is on the way down. “Only” 1,736 bullfights happened across Spain which is down 132 from 2014. Whether it is traditional or not it looks like Spaniards are turning their back on the sport but some would argue that apathy is perhaps more dangerous than opposition.

Whether this apathy for bullfighting infects the fight for independence for Catalan remains to be seen, but it doesn’t seem likely given the passion of the Catalan people.