elspeth sinclair

Send them on under plain cover.

steviedeluxe

Numbers of tourists increased in September over last year (Spanish text)

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/econo...lpepueco_4/Tes

An increase of 4.2% in tourists, and an increase of 8.3% in those staying overnight at hotels, apartments etc. But it's been achieved by a reduction in rates (which seems good news to me!)

Madridboy

I've noticed an increase in English speaking voices in this area over the last couple of months as well, not sure how long it's going to last though with the exchange rate as it is.

steviedeluxe

well the exchange rate has been like this for nearly 2 years now? I suspect all the cuts and projected job losses in the UK may make a difference to tourism numbers. Plus the fact that air ticket costs are rising back up. Interesting that the news article states the biggest increase was in German tourists.

johnnyone

Now that the government has substantially increased tax on medium/long haul flights,summer european holday destinations should see a benefit in tourism, so perhaps things will start to look up in the Spanish Costas.

jackytoo

Lets hope so, the CDS needs it. Málaga province faces the Autumn with a third of the population unemployed

http://www.diariosur.es/v/20101030/m...-20101030.html

steviedeluxe

Interesting news report on unemployment in differing parts of Spain. Whereas Andalucia and the Canaries have 28.5% on paro, Navarra with 12.5% and the Basque country (9.98%) have a different story. Catalunya, Galicia and the Balerics seem to be making a jobs recovery with each region creating more than 20,000 new posts. Don't ask me why Andalucia always has the worst unemployment - I'm sure someone here will have the definitive answer!

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/econo...lpepieco_3/Tes

agoreira

Yes, a bit depressing. I was just reading that nationally the number of unemployed had dropped nearly 71,000, thanks mainly to an increase in jobs of 90,000 in the public sector. Sounds like a lot more public servants!

agoreira

It depends on what those jobs are of course. One of the papers uses the term "maquillar los datos de paro" (they all do it!) by creating thousands more civil servants, most of them part time. If they are jobs that are producing something, that´s great, but I suspect a lot of them will be the 90,000 created in the public sector. In the same period, the private sector produced only 2,500 jobs, and those are the jobs Spain needs more of.

steviedeluxe

Ha! Not many posters can make the creation of jobs sound like bad news! I suspect it's getting like the UK, where private companies become ever more leaner and efficient and need fewer workers (or outsource it all to cheaper countries). Western Europe may be seeing the last of major manufacturing - even Germany is putting a lot of its assembly plants in Eastern Europe.
The only major new creator of jobs in the UK I've seen recently was a Spanish company, Gamesa! (1900 jobs in next 10 years). Having said that, the UK government are still said to be pressing ahead with Crossrail, so construction jobs in London should be ok over the next few years, even after the Olympics.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-1...gy-center.html

agoreira

As I wrote that post, I said to myself, I guarantee that he´ll come back with a comparison with UK, and he never disappoints!

steviedeluxe

Well I'm hearing a lot of media propaganda now about "private=good, public=bad" here. The truth is, things aren't so black and white in real life. The company I currently contract for, is a private company. Yet most of its work is done for the public sector (local and central government). That company probably counts as the private sector (listed on the stock exchange, gives dividends etc) yet wouldn't exist without a central body controlling things. Is a doctor who is trained by medical school "non-productive"? Or is only productive part of the time, when he does some private work on the side?

elspeth sinclair

They don't produce anything their main employers were in construction and tourism both suffering badly at the moment.

missile

The spin doctors seek to devalue public service workers, ignoring the fact that those workers have real jobs, buy homes, cars, spend money in shops etc. 250,000 to go in the public sector and I fear we shall see many more jobs lost in the private sector as a direct result.