The Bank of Spain considers that the usefulness shown by the income protection schemes of companies and workers to face the crisis unleashed in March begins to weaken as the economic depression caused by the coronavirus continues.

To date, with two extensions, the ERTEs have reached

3.4 million jobs at their highest peak,

currently affecting 750,000 people.

Unemployment, meanwhile, has climbed to 3.8 million people, 600,000 more than at the beginning of the hibernation of the economy in March.

However,

Óscar Arce,

general director of economics and statistics of the Bank of Spain, has indicated that already in the tenth month of validity of these measures, "the suitability of the ERTE to safeguard employment may be reduced and restructuring is required to sector and / or company level ".

Arce's intervention at the 'El Norte de Castilla' Economic Forum indicates that the Bank of Spain detects

more and more businesses are in financial difficulties without a clear expectation of improvement in the short term

and that this circumstance may end up turning what is now into unemployment they are job suspensions.

After the peak reached in April, the number of people affected by ERTE has been reducing in the following months with the reactivation of the economy, but the outbreaks and the second wave of the epidemic have led to a rebound in massive job suspensions.

According to the Bank of Spain, many companies have been able to resort to ERTEs thanks to the fact that they have in turn been supported with liquidity measures.

In this second phase,

the problems of the companies are shifting to solvency

, with which, he affirms, the aid should be focused on the most affected but viable businesses while facilitating the processes of insolvencies to activities that cannot be recovered.

The consequence of this process would be the transformation of ERTE into ERE or even the direct closure of the companies.

To prevent job suspensions from turning into long-term structural unemployment, the Bank of Spain's director of statistics considers it "crucial" to

avoid decapitalization of the workers affected by

offering them the possibility of combining the collection of unemployment benefits with the realization of of a part-time job not affected by suspension measures and offer them priority for access to training initiatives for employment.

For the moment, the supervisor's expectations are that the unemployment level remains at high levels until 2022. According to the Bank of Spain, with the arrival of the second wave, the intensity of the recovery is in the air.

His analysis of the economic situation is that there is a lack of certainty to foresee the evolution of the economy if there is no concrete health advance that allows to lay a foundation.

In fact, the agency assumes that

the recovery that began in June has already been interrupted as a result of the second wave of the pandemic.

The impact of COVID-19 on the economy has been much higher than that of previous recessions with a drop in Social Security affiliation of 20% in May which, in the case of sectors such as hospitality, has reached 30% destruction of employment, with their companies leading the impact on losses and financial weakness

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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