The amount of unemployed people in Spain – the country’s biggest problem – fell below 5 million in the third quarter of the year, for the first time since 2011. The jobless rate dropped 1.19 percentage points to 21.18%, while the employment rate rose 1%. But the improvement is exclusively due to temporary work contracts.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) recently said Spain’s tax system and the “strict” labour laws do not help the country to deal with a black economy accounting for around 18% of GDP. This piece of advice is not new.
BEIJING | June 23, 2015 | By Ye Xiang via Caixin | The country may be facing the end of cheap labor, but these changes are being driven by a more fundamental shift in the economic model rather than family planning policies.
LONDON | June 19, 2015 | UBS | There are some striking similarities currently between the US and UK labour markets. The unemployment rates are broadly the same, employment growth is similar, and the level of vacancies suggests continued jobs growth in both countries. Moreover, there are solid signs that pay growth has picked up in both the UK and US.
LONDON | By Antonio García Pascual at Barclays | The most recent labour market data have been improving at a faster pace than we had envisaged, including results for the Q3 14 Economically Active Population Survey (EAPS). The EAPS shows that employment increased by 151k in Q3 (private sector +155k; public sector -4k). The number of unemployed fell by 195k, standing at 5.4mn. The unemployment rate stood at 23.7% (24.1% sa), compared to 24.5% in Q2 (24.7% sa). The participation rate continues to fall, to 59.4% (sa), albeit at a moderate pace – this is also consistent with ongoing net migration outflows.
MADRID | The Corner | Although employment is not in the central bank’s mandate, the European Central Bank’s October monthly bulletin focuses on the impact of the economic crisis on euro area labour markets. “Monetary policy is focused on maintaining price stability over the medium term and its accommodative stance contributes to supporting economic activity. However, in order to strengthen investment activity, job creation and potential growth, other policy areas need to contribute decisively.”
MADRID | The Corner | A staggering unemployment is one of Spain’s main weaknesses (as the IMF warns), although the forth economy in Europe is so far the best labor performer in the euro area, according to Brussels.
MADRID | By Luis Arroyo | Let’s see some pictures showing how the Spanish labour market truly is at the moment.
MADRID | By Luis Arroyo | Experts at Afi made an analysis of the US’ labour market to forecast a possible turn in the economic policy. The answer is that such market is yet far from standardization. We can see three different moments according to the standard deviation in the chart above.
LONDON | By Michael Gapen at Barclays | Persistent improvement in US labor markets has caused the Fed to continue tapering and to alter its quantitative policy rate guidance in favor of qualitative language indicating that the committee is prepared to maintain the current target rate for the federal funds rate for “a considerable time after the asset purchase program ends, especially if projected inflation continues to run below the Committee’s 2 percent longer-run goal.”