Spain: People on the dole to near 6 million in 2013

The number of people on the dole in Spain will near 6 million in 2013, i.e. more than a quarter of the workforce in the country.
The gloomy unemployment figures were disclosed this week by the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE) which underlined that the labor reform adopted by the government will not curb unemployment.
According to the confederation, unemployment rate will continue to grow to reach 25.2 percent in 2012 and 26.5 percent in 2013.
The CEOE also predicts that Spanish economy will contract by 1.6 percent in 2012 and in 2013, contradicting the government’s forecasts which set the figure at 1.5 percent in 2012 and 0.5 percent in 2013. The data is worse than the predictions made by the CEOE itself last March when it reported that the Spanish GDP would contract by 0.7 percent and the unemployment rate would stand at 23.9 percent in 2013.
According to the CEOE, the deficit will also be deeper than the government’s forecasts and will reach 6.9 percent in 2012 instead of 6.3 percent as predicted by the government.
The deficit will stand at 4.9 percent in 2013, the confederation says.
The Spanish government of the Popular Party adopted a number of labor, fiscal and structural reforms, including cutbacks in public spending and increases in sales tax to improve public finances, the labor market and competition and bring out the country from the current recession. Spanish officials have repeatedly hailed the reforms implemented saying they just need time to have an effect.