Significant job creation for 2014, says Spain Economy Minister

Luis de Guindos is confident that job creation will be strong for Spain this year

New Year’s Day may have heralded the arrival of splitting hangovers and hastily scribbled resolutions all across Europe, but it also welcomed the news that Spain is likely to experience ‘significant job creation in 2014’, according to the country’s Economy Minister.

Luis de Guindos said on January 1^st that job creation is likely to perform better than expected in the coming 12 months, telling Cadena Ser national radio: “2014 will see the net creation of jobs, higher even than we predicted in September in the budget, and the jobless rate will fall…”

Although de Guindos would not be drawn on revealing a figure for the actual number of jobs created, he did strongly suggest that a tangible recovery in the fortunes of thousands of out-of-work Spaniards is on the cards this year.

On the same day, however, national newspaper El Mundo revealed in a survey of 1,000 people that 71% of those polled think that recovery is only likely to be felt at the beginning of 2015 at the earliest.

Having suffered through a five-year-long depression characterised by high unemployment, stagnant wages and a hefty exodus of the country’s young people, Spaniards could be forgiven for erring on the side of pessimism as far as Spain’s economy is concerned.

However, the government has been praised for the economic reforms it has instigated thus far, with de Guindos reiterating that “we believe the labour reforms we have introduced will make the job market more dynamic in 2014.”