1,254 people lost their jobs last month in Almería, which means that Almería province was responsible for 52,4% of all job losses in Andalucía. There are now 57,753 unemployed people in Almería.
Conversely, Huelva, Cádiz and Seville all registered a small increase in job creation – the three provinces managed to find employment for around 2,000 people last month. There are currently 796,467 unemployed workers across Andalucía.
In general, unemployment in Almería has tripled year on year – in April 2008, there were only 23,187 workers on the dole.
Regional parties have united in complaining that the regional government in not doing enough to generate employment in Almería.
“Almería is a swan for Madrid, but still an ugly duckling for Seville” claimed a spokesperson for SEOPAN, the construction think tank, as they pointed to new figures to show that Almería is the third most invested in province by the central government, but the second least invested in province by the regional government of Madrid.
In all, Madrid has promised to invest 436 million euros in Almería this year (after Seville and Jaén), as opposed to 197 million euros by Seville (just ahead of Huelva), according to a study by SEOPAN that took into accounts all official projects licensed for the community of Andalucía in different state publications. Most of the regional investment will be in several large projects – in June 2009, for example, Seville will spend fewer than one million euros in Almería. Out of the special investment budget of 3,017’5 million euros promised for 2009 by Seville, Almería will receive a mere 6,54 % of the total.
However, the central government in Madrid has promised to spend twice this amount on infrastructure projects in the province, among which are the ports of Garrucha, Carboneras and Almería, and the new high speed AVÉ line.