The Marina Alta Committee warns about increase in long-term unemployed

Friday 11th February 2022 – ÁLVARO MONFORT
Translated from an original article on Xàbia AL DÍA

The CREAMA Marina Alta Committee has analyzed the employment data for January, concluding that the region has experienced “a correction of the labour market during 2021 that has led to the recovery of the jobs lost during the hardest stage of the pandemic.”

According to the information collected, if the months of December 2021 and 2019 are compared, the difference in the region between the pre-pandemic year and the pandemic is just 421 more people.

Figures from January indicate that the current number of job seekers (10,867) is already lower than that of 2020 (11,171) just before the national state of alarm was declared. However, the good data contains a more profound problem: 55% of unemployed people in La Marina Alta have not found work for more than a year.

The pandemic has only increased the number of unemployed and long-term unemployed, which has risen especially during 2021. According to the committee, from an economic point of view, the consequences of this type of unemployment are relevant “because it leads to obsolescence (expiry) of the accumulated human capital and the growing loss of skills as the time in a situation of unemployment increases”.

It adds that: “This process makes reintegration into the labour market more difficult by accentuating the mismatch between the skills of unemployed individuals and those demanded by the market, among other reasons. From the social and individual point of view, the consequences are equally serious, since long-term unemployment is a gateway to poverty and social exclusion, to isolation and to the worsening of the mental health of the unemployed”.