Macro-economic data indicate that the economy is on the rise, but this is based on job insecurity. According to the CEP’s annual balance sheet, the provisional employment rate is higher than ever before: In 2009 it was 18.6%, but in 2017 it has gone up to 28.5%, ten points more, and Arrieta explained in a press conference on Wednesday that in the first half of 2018 it jumped to 29.5%.

The fall in the unemployment rate in recent years can also be misleading: the pair has fallen because of the fall in the active population. There are now 50,000 fewer jobs than a decade ago. Productivity, however, has grown. In other words, fewer people work more and generate more wealth for companies. Meanwhile, the wage gap has grown and 10% of the less paid workers now pay even less.

Faced with this situation, the number of strikes has increased significantly: In 2016 there were 58,117 days of strikes by salaried workers, compared to 96,423 in 2017.

There is also a red light in collective bargaining. Although there are more workers subject to a collective agreement, the nationalization continues and those who work under the conditions of the Spanish treaties –belonging to the Basque Country but poorer– are 157,155, when the Spanish labor reform was implemented in 2012 but 32,000 more.