A total of 81,683 people are currently unemployed in the Balearic Isles (October 2009), up 24,701 from this time last year, i. e. an increase of 43.3 % over this time last year. This is the highest unemployment figure recorded here for the last 25 years.

To add insult to injury, for some reason some 30 % of these unfortunate people out of work do not qualify for unemployment benefits, here.

Whilst we are told that the European Union seems to be coming out of the recession and that the economic outlook for 2010 is slightly up, and even better for 2011, this optimistic view does not seem to hold for Mallorca. La Crisis seems to be biting more severely here and in Spain than in the rest of Europe. In all of Spain, there are currently 3,808,353 people without employment (October 2009), an increase of 35.1 % over the same time last year.

The photo was taken in Felanitx, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: October 30th, 2009. The time was 10:10:11.