Zapatero Expects Jobs Creation by 2010

 

Zapatero said yesterday that his government had expectations of the economy growing to be able to create new jobs by late 2010 or early 2011. He went on to mention that Spain is in 'the last part of negative growth', with quarter-on-quarter growth expected by the end of 2009 early 2010.

The decline of employment has slowed in a 'very important' way, the prime minister said, that Spain would be starting to create jobs once again by the end of next year, but that consumer confidence must recover first before any jobs can go on to be created .

Spain currently has the highest unemployment rate in the European Union, according to the most recent figures from Eurostat, the EU's statistics agency, which said the Spanish unemployment figures stood at 18.1% in June 2009. Spain has experienced its first recession since 1993, with the construction and service sectors having suffered worst of all at the hands of the Global crisis.

Zapatero went on to say hoe Spain's economy needed many labour reforms in order to strengthen business in Spain as a whole change and labour reforms that strengthen businesses, but without leaving the workers themselves at a disadvantage.<./p>

A short-term job creation fund of 20 billion euros has been created to support business projects in competitive sectors, as well as a local fund of 5 billion euros for local governments to renovate infrastructure and improve energy efficiency, Zapatero said. 'These two large funds are going to create jobs. They are going to create jobs and they are going to create stable employment,' Zapatero said.

Only last week Elena Salgado, the Minister for Economy & Finance, announced a proposal to put Spain on a course to ‘sustainable economic growth', mentioning that one of the principal aims was to create a 'stable and predictable' framework of regulation that was not at the same time restrictive.

The government is also trying to regulate excessive public spending by having the local governments produce reports detailing budgets and expenses, and has given the General State Administration the responsibility of overseeing this.

Additionally, Zapatero has proposed speeding up the time it takes to create and register new businesses, his economy chief said. Salgado went on to mention how the package would include an increase in existing tax deductions for research and development, and for green investment.