Unemployment and Despair in hiring in Portugal? Contradiction in terms or sign of the times? – The Economic Newspaper
Portugal is experiencing a clear environment of economic recovery, and regions such as Madeira are once again full of tourists who, in reaction to the successive periods of confinement in their countries of origin, are now having time and money. on your side, they want to enjoy life and some freedom, whatever the price.
It is this effect (let’s see if it is just a reflection of the crisis or if it is the beginning of a more sustainable phenomenon) that causes an apparent contradiction in terms when, sitting while watching the news, I saw two apparently contradictory news in succession: (1) the first news reported that 6% of the population was unemployed, which corresponds to around 300,000 unemployed and (2) the second news reported businessmen in hotels, restaurants, bars and similar, as well as many others. various sectors, desperate to hire people and failing to do so.
This effect of desperation reported by entrepreneurs is supported, because in our day-to-day activities, with our customers, they have encountered the difficulties they have in being able to hire, and they are often almost willing to accept anyone , with or without training.
Thus, the following question seems pertinent: If a job offer in Portugal at this moment exceeds demand, where are the 300,000 Portuguese unemployed that the National Statistics Institute says exist?
The reality is that our Social Security social protection system, due to its length of protection and given the amounts earned, does not represent any incentive to return to the labor market. There are known cases of people who have no problem with employers in identifying to declare that they are not suitable for the vacancy that is open, just to allow them to continue to receive unemployment benefits and do some “odd jobs” without being declared.
This phenomenon is diametrically known and “tolerated” by society, no one seems to care because, it seems, the approximately € 1,200,000.00 million euros (one billion and two hundred million euros – to be clearer) that are annual spending on unemployment benefits in Portugal is Social Security money and it seems that it belongs to no one.
But that’s not the case, because Social Security’s money belongs to all of us and comes from our taxes. Arrived here, and at a time when IRS rates equal to or greater than 40% are being trivialized in our levels that comprise a vast percentage of the Portuguese active population, an urgent decision needs to be taken on the direction in the country, because (1) or we adapt our social protection system for a mechanism that better guarantees the protection of people, but that promotes their return to the labor market (not to mention the urgent end of the social plague that are like fraudulent casualties in Portugal), or (2 ) having employees in Portugal pay more and more taxes, receive less and less, to support more and more unemployed (or people who resort to “schemes” to deceive Social Security) in a spiral of endless decline that will result always in the ruin of our country. It is worth thinking about it…