Coronavirus crisis leaves thousands jobless on Costa Almeria

THE coronavirus crisis added 8,685 people to Almeria’s jobless total in March, figures from the Employment Ministry reveal.
The provincial unemployment rate shot up by a massive 15.48 per cent last month to 64,796.
All sectors were hit, but it was services which suffered the most, with an additional 6,583 people put out of work.
Commenting on the annihilation of so many jobs in just weeks the CSIF Almeria trade union said the province had been put back three years.
Union president Juan Cabezas commented that when adding in the workers affected by ERTE temporary employment regulations, a mechanism which allows companies to suspend job contracts or to reduce employee working hours due to force majeure in order to relieve financial tension, Almeria had gone back a decade.
CSIF pointed out that employees on temporary contracts or in an uncertain work situation were most affected.
“Unfortunately Covid-19 has also infected the province’s economic flows and the figures will be worse in April, hence we have to be prepared for one of the worst productive crisis in recent years in Almeria,” Cabezas warned.