5 towns highest jobless increase in the province

THE municipalities of Pilar de la Horadada, Orihuela, Mutxamel, Altea and San Vicente had the dubious privilege of being registered between March 2007 and 2010 as having the biggest rise in unemployment in relative terms in the Alicante Province. In absolute numbers Alicante city and Elche have the highest number of people without work, with 21,286 and 16,288 more people respectively; making them second and fourth place in the Valencian Region.

Pilar de la Horadada is the municipality that registered a record increase in unemployment with a 372 per cent increase in unemployed people since the last electoral campaign, although the actual number is 1,122 more people on the dole.

The hardest hit sector in the five municipalities is construction, with many tilers, bricklayers, crane operators and laborers not being able to reintegrate into the agricultural sector due to the increasing number of fields being registered as abandoned.

Suprisingly the sector that has seen the most business in recent months are unisex hairdressers, according to Pilar de la Horadada Town Hall sources.