The PSOE deputy in the Assembly, Aitor Vaquerizo, has considered that the figures of the EPA for the third quarter in Extremadura should make "all alarms go off" in the Ministry of Economy and push the Junta to activate an emergency plan that allows "once and for all" for the community to converge with the "good data" of the whole country.
In this sense, he has criticized the "self-satisfaction" that, in his opinion, the regional government of the PP and Vox show in economic and employment matters, an attitude that, he said, prevents them from proposing any real "solution" for the region.
"As long as (PP and Vox) are not able to admit that there is a problem, that they are generating a problem in the employment of this region, they will not be able to put any solution on the table," asserted the socialist parliamentarian, who also warned that, in light of the EPA data released this Tuesday, "bad months for employment" are coming in Extremadura.
As a counterpoint, he pointed out that the regional Executive also does not offer "solutions" through the regional budgets for 2027, in which active employment policies have been "cut." To this, he lamented, the community allocates its resources to "pay more debts than what the commerce, industry, and employment sum up in total."
In the same vein, he reproached the Extremaduran government that "the major business projects in the region are still paralyzed, they are not getting off the ground."
EXHAUSTED LABOR MARKET
Thus, Vaquerizo expressed himself in a press conference held this Tuesday in Mérida, in which he defended that what the EPA shows coincides with what the Socialist Parliamentary Group has been warning in recent months: that "the labor market in the region is exhausted."
"For the first time in almost a decade, we do not have more people working than ever. The continuous growth of employment in Extremadura has ended. The employed are decreasing, the active are decreasing, and the unemployed are decreasing, but this decrease has nothing to do with employment," warned the socialist, who added that "the fewer unemployed are not getting placed, the fewer unemployed are being expelled from the labor market because they either just retired or because they have left Extremadura."
As he explained, this situation is clearly seen in the young population, given that 85 percent of the fewer registered employed corresponds to people under 34 years old.
He also highlighted the "tremendously revealing" fact that in the last decade "the same number of young people working in Extremadura has been maintained," which, in his opinion, demonstrates "a lost decade for youth," something that "young people in this region cannot afford."
"The difference is that ten years ago young people in Extremadura represented 30 percent of the workforce in our region and today they represent just over 20 percent," he indicated.
At this point, he warned that "unemployment has decreased because there is no space for young people in the Extremaduran labor market"; and he also considered it "tremendously concerning" that the number of employed returns to levels of 2024, while he warned "even more" about the evolution of the active population, which is retreating to figures from 2018.
While Extremadura remains in this scenario, the socialist emphasized that Spain "is once again breaking a new employment record." "In our country, we have more people than ever working and we have a Government of Spain concerned about employment and the good progress of the economy of this country," he stressed.
He also recalled that the central Executive has approved a labor reform and a minimum interprofessional wage that "are favoring this good progress," and that they did not have the support of the PP or Vox. "They told us that we were going to destroy this country, well, we did not destroy it, no, but we also advanced the economy of Spain with better data and more people working," he highlighted.
Finally, during his intervention before the media, Aitor Vaquerizo had a memory for the former regional deputy of the PSOE Luciano Fernández, who passed away this past Monday, the 26th, of whom he noted that "he left an indelible mark" in his parliamentary work.