The President of the Canary Islands Government, Ángel Víctor Torres, has stated that the data that includes a reduction in the unemployment rate in the Canary Islands during the month of June "demonstrates the strength of our economic system, reaching figures that we have not had for more than 15 years and placing the Canary Islands as the leader of the best data in Spain".
Specifically, the unemployment rate registered in the offices of the public employment services in the islands has stood in June at 190,244 people, with 3,498 fewer unemployed than the previous month, which represents a percentage decrease of 1.81%. And if compared with the same period of 2021, the decrease is up to 30.69%, with 84,231 fewer unemployed in just one year.
"All this demonstrates the robustness of the Canary Islands economy, which has managed to maintain and improve even after the invasion of Ukraine," said Torres, who indicated that he hopes "that prices will also begin to regulate soon.” In any case, although he has defined that these figures "mark a reactivation" venturing that "the high season that begins will surely maintain this trend", he pointed out that unemployment must continue to be alleviated.
For her part, the director of the Canarian Employment Service (SCE), Dunnia Rodríguez, highlighted the “clear impact of the labor reform”, although she also appealed to maintain “prudence in the analysis and work in management because various uncertainties persist in the labor market, such as the war crisis, the inflationary trend and a health crisis that has not yet completely reversed”.
The unions fear the impact of inflation
In any case, the unions warn of the dangers of inflation, which could have a full impact on the good unemployment data recorded in recent months.
Specifically, the general secretary of CCOO in the Canary Islands, Inocencio González, has stressed that the Canary Islands is the autonomous community in which unemployment is reduced with greater intensity, but has recalled that the Spanish average has not yet been reached.
He has also assessed that some data are in a similar situation to that prior to the 2008 crisis, so he has stressed that more employment is being created, but insists that if inflation is not tackled, the positive evolution can be "ruined".
For his part, the general secretary of UGT in the Canary Islands, Manuel Navarro, has acknowledged that although the unemployment data for the past month are good, the number of workers unemployed is still very high and many of them are poor, something that Ángel Víctor Torres has also spoken about. "In the Canary Islands there are still 190,000 people unemployed for whom we will continue working," said the president of the archipelago.
Finally, the UGT leader stressed that in the Canary Islands there are 1,920 workers in an ERTE situation, many of them guaranteed until the end of the year because most of them are affected by the volcano of La Palma, and although he was happy because at the national level it has dropped below 3 million unemployed, he commented that there is a "substantial" difference that harms women.
