Spanish Minister for the Economy, Industry and Competitiveness, Luis de Guindos, on Tuesday said the country would create more than 500,000 new jobs in 2017, reducing the unemployment rate “clearly” below 17 per cent.
Speaking at a news conference, De Guindos was optimistic that the number of positions created this year would beat the 2016 record of 390,500 jobs created.
“The record is still left around 3.7 million Spaniards out of work: an unemployment rate of around 18.4 per cent,” De Guindos said.
But assured that the labour reforms implanted by the People’s Party Government were “giving their fruit,” and that 2017 would end with an unemployment rate “well” below the government’s own predictions of 17.6 per cent by the end of the year.
The minister highlighted that if this happened, it would mean a 10 per cent reduction in unemployment rate from the maximum level of over 4.5 million people out of work in 2013.
Spain still faces the dual problems of low wages and the precarious nature of many new jobs.
De Guindos insisted that the “data would start to improve” in that respect. (Xinhua/NAN)
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