So you'd say they'll get a job no problem then?

There are plenty out of work around here and they are the ones not even counted on the list.

Thanks Lionda, will check that out

Could I just say that after reading on this, and other forums over the last few months I was not sure what to expect on my trip over last week, but to my suprize Spain is alive and well!!! We went to Benidorm for the day and stayed over night in a hotel that took over 30 mins to check in because it was that busy. Glad the hotel had its own parking or we would have still been driving round now and a very enjoyable night out taking in some wonderful acts in quite busy bars. Yes not as busy as August but after all it is winter

My daughter has just got a job doing bar work 5 euro an hour... but if the bar doesn't empty at the end of the night you don't leave until it does....no extra money! Holidaymakers take note....don't hang around in a bar at the end of the night, the bar staff are on extra time for zilch!

Glad to hear that jeanc, thanks

No it isn't busy...it's dead. Picking up a little but very slow and according to people who have lived here for years Benidorm is having it's worst winter for years.

You're right Mitz, those two will have a nightmare finding a job - but they would have had that, recession or not.

Lionda, whilst I don't doubt that it is quiet to what you have become used to, every year I've been here you will hear bar/restaurant owners bemoan how it is the worst year ever. Yet curiously when you speak to them in October/November they've always done 'alright'. But I can understand why a place as overextended as Benidorm might feel the pinch in lean times - they have far too many bars & restaurants than it can sustain

They have all done 'alright'.....most of them are hoping to sell so won't say different

Strange thing is, a guy that runs a letting agency I know has the most advanced bookings he has ever had, this year.

Sorry I must be telling lies then? Just reminded me again why I stopped posting....

Have a look at this just to give you a taste of problems facing some of the labour market.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/7887055.stm

And Mitzboys figures were about right.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7846895.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7920734.stm

Re the article below some of the comments are worth a look. The English bars are taking a political pounding from the anti karaoke/Knees up mother Brown establishment.

http://www.costa-news.com/index.php?...1&limitstart=1

Work .... one the guy who live next door to me was tell me that the company he works at that havent sold one unit this month are last month there in the footwear industry

Commercial Business across the city is slow , 1,000 shoe factories, being one of the most important footwear industries in Spain and the rest of Europe . you waer it been throught here . At present , they are using new strategies based on brands, design, fashion, quality, research, respect for the environment, new technologies and high standards of service. lots have been layed off there jobs here . design house are just doing the odd job , companies supplying component parts, raw materials and accessories are cryying out for work and bussines . last year i had cash in my walit now i fine cash is not space and not buyying treats , driving , watching my fill ups and prices . el corte ingles is only get the window shopping , and as for the Hipercor not buyying much there any more , down two Mercadona Carrefour are Eroski for there name brands , thinks are hard here and afraid of losing there jobs are have done , banks wont help out the lettle companys here aswell and for remortgaging you havnt n chance here ....

Whilst I don't deny there is rising unemployment, this links are misleading in that they have come from a UK source looking at it through Brit eyes. Normally not necessarily a problem but here, an understanding of Spanish psyche is essential.

First up....


I had to chuckle at this piece. The BBC site is arguably the site I use the most - and it is certainly the site I go to for news about UK. However, maybe their strict guidelines for recruiting top notch journalists are as stringent as they once might have been. Anyone watching that with no knowledge of Huelva (let alone Spain) would be left with the impression that the province is in dire straits having to send its citizens to the fields for work as there was nothing elsewhere. POPPYCOCK!!!!!

Spaniards in this area go to the fields EVERY year. True, in recent years with so much construction, they were required elsewhere. But go up to any of the fields in any given year and you will find the waiters, cooks etc who served you in the summer, happily taking the good money the strawberry (and other fruit & veg) offer - whilst simultaneaously pocketing their handsome dole cheques too. Some prefer to take the winter easy and don't bother. Some who want to make a special purchase - car, holiday etc - will do a month or however long they need to reach their target. During Feb, fishing had to stop here, as it does every year, as they gove the sea time to replenish stocks. People who rely on fishing find themselves unemployed for a month. Those luck enough to be OFFICIALLY contracted full time, will recieve a payment for each day they are not working. Most however will claim dole for the month, and some will head off to the fields until they go back out again.

Reading press closer to home by local journalists and one gets a better idea than a BBC man passing through. In Andalucia, according to the latest figures, unemployment grew at a slower rate than anywhere else in Spain growing at 3.93% on the previous month compared to the national average of 4.63%. Huelva province saw the lowest growth in Andalucia in that time at 1.86%, making it one of the three (might be two but can't find that figure now) provinces out of Spain's fifty with the lowest unemployment growth.

One would also think then from the BBC report that the immigrants are having a tough time given that all these pesky Spaniards are muscling in and taking their jobs. Not necessarily so. There are 53,207 unemployed immigrants in the whole of Andalucia. But once again Huelva registered one of the lowest numbers in the Autonomous Region with just 2,859 or just 5% of the Andalucian total. Compare that to Malaga with 18,688 unemployed immigrants (with an estimated 40% of those from EU countries)


Next up:

Figures never lie!!!! Unless you take into account that for many Spanish workers it is something they do voluntarily to boost their income. Of course, there are many there 'legitimately' in that there isn't anything else. I had to visit our Dole Office last week to promote a course my missus is running. It was funny to hear the lads in the queue complaining about how long it was taking as they had to get back to work!!!!!!!!!!!!! A young mother I know is over the moon about being unemployed. She earned a higher than average waitress wage for this area (which isn't all that high anyway) but the owner of the bar, who normally closes for a few months in winter but decided to remain open, told her after Christmas that he would have to either lay her off until Easter or severely cut back her hours so that she would be earning very little. A third way was preferred - unemployment. Earning over 70% her salary on the dole, coupled with the fact that she is a single mum of two toddlers (despite living with the kids' father!!!) and her total earnings are somewhere near what she was earning for doing a 6 day week and well over 40 hours. She also gets called in to do a few shifts cash in hand, so in fact she is better off.

There are lots of similar stories about people who are doing well out of the social. It is something that has existed for donkey's years and governments have meddled with this at their peril. Mr Bean's current lot vowed to clean this all up and for the first few years, there were crackdowns all over the place. Funnily enough, this has all seemed to stop now as they too, like many governments before them, are once again turning a blind eye. It would be political suicide now for any government to try and meddle with dole claimers who are also working. They would not only be soon out of power, they'd be faced with massive rioting.

Right or wrong, there it is. And remember, just like last year, the spring & summer months will see these figures altered again with many of the unemployed going back to their seasonal jobs - for hotels and and many high profile bars & restaurants these workers will have to come off the dole as these jobs won't pay off the books.

And finally....


Ahem...!!!! Lovely, balanced reporting, eh, with no slant whatsoever!!!!!!! A law just doesn't APPEAR out of thin air. The council will have to have proposed it, discussed it, passed it - all of which would have been reported in the local press, and would certainly have been talked about among traders themselves. That the local Brit paper maybe did not send their correspondent to the relevant council meetings - or even simply translate the press release or story from another Spanish paper - to run so that the Brit bars could learn about it, is a sorry oversight. Quote: "local police have been given orders to stop these events from taking place" No, local police have been told to check that the relevant permits are in place. These bars should consider themselves lucky that their entertainment was just stopped from going ahead - they could have been fined instead. As for the bars who are carrying out illegal gambling on their premises, they should keep quiet and think themselves lucky they were able to get away with it for so long.

Quote: British bar owners are asking if it is down to the crisis that Brit bars being targeted in order to force people into other establishments.

Or could it be that down to the crisis, councils across the land who need extra cash are simply enforcing laws available to them that in other times they might have ignored them. In my town where there are (thankfully) no Brit bars or fish & chip shops, the bars & restaurant owners have been subjected to inspections recently too. The police are also being more ticket happy when it comes to parking, whereas before they were quite relaxed. More traffic controls for on the spot fines for speeding, seatbelt, insurance etc - curiously at the moment, they don't care if you drive drunk as they get to fill the council coffers with the other fines.

No, you just don't know the current situation from the point of view of someone who lives and 'works' in Benidorm. There are a lot of people, young and old, who live in the Benidorm area who have been out of work over the winter season and are still looking for work. Bars have closed, some are beginning to open others still closed. The ones who have been here for years and waiting for Benidorm to pick up - workwise -are all after the same jobs. Some have had to leave the area, others who can't pay their rents have had to move in with friends or family. It really has been bad. The worst winter season in years. Hopefully it will pick up but who knows.