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Spain to Enact New Labor Laws by Early 2022 in Jobs Boost Drive

Spain to Enact New Labor Laws by Early 2022 in Jobs Boost Drive

Spain intends to have new labor laws in place by early next year to ease the creation of hundreds of thousands of jobs while its economy recovers from the pandemic.

“Our goal is to have a new labor-market framework by the beginning of 2022 that helps to ensure strong growth in quality jobs, with greater productivity and better salaries,” Economy Minister Nadia Calvino said in a news conference on Wednesday.

The government, led by Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, is already talking to unions and business lobbies about potential changes to labor laws, she said. The reforms aim to simplify the number of contracts and modernize the country’s framework for collective bargaining, she added, without providing additional details.

Spain had one of Europe’s highest unemployment rates, even before the pandemic struck. Spain and other countries are working to re-tool their economies as part of a package of investments and reforms tied to the European Union’s pandemic recovery fund, which aims to stoke medium-term growth.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.