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 "2014 will see the net creation of jobs, higher even than we
predicted in September in the budget, and the jobless rate will
fall," Luis de Guindos told Cadena Ser national radio, declining to
put a number on expected jobs created.
Spain exited a recession in the third quarter of last year but the
economy is still sickly and with unemployment officially predicted
at 25.9 percent in 2014, roughly where it is now, there is little
perception of a real recovery on the streets.
Separately on Wednesday, a poll of 1,000 people published in
newspaper El Mundo showed that 71 percent of Spaniards believe the
recovery and the end of the crisis will start in 2015 at the
earliest.
The country is still reeling from a decade-long housing bubble which
burst more than five years ago, forcing a 41-billion euro ($56
billion) bailout of the country's banks, which were glutted with
property debt.
The center-right government decreed a labor market reform in late
December to encourage employers to take on more part-time workers
and to simplify contracting in hopes of fuelling job creation.
"We believe the labor reform will make the market more dynamic ...
in 2014," Guindos said in the interview recorded a few days ago.
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However one think tank has said the changes fail to tackle Spain's
notoriously two-tiered labor market, with security for long-term
fixed contracts and practically none for shorter-term ones.
Guindos added that the economic recovery would take root thanks to
an expected tax reform which would look to reverse a personal income
tax rise implemented when the government came to power in 2011, and
cut corporate taxes while reducing corporate tax deductions.
(Reporting by Elisabeth O'Leary; editing
by John Stonestreet)
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