Por Redaccion 
The municipality closed 2024 with 3,591 unemployed, 317 fewer than at the beginning of the year, a figure that has not been recorded for almost two decades.
The Local Employment Office was close to local training and development programs on Monday for the coming months for over 6.2 million euros, with 650 beneficiaries.
Fulgencio Gil Jódar, Primary: «The city’s revitalization is a tangible reality in the numbers that translate into a significant decrease in the number of unemployed coinciding with the scheduled mass events.»
Monday, February 3, 2025. The city’s revitalization with the versatility of the infrastructure, like the auditor Margarita Lozano, transformed Lorca into the city of fairs, congresses, festivals, sports, and all kinds of massive events that complement hotels and hospitality institutions, reducing the strike by over 300 people. The data was provided on Monday by the mayor, Fulgencio Gil Jódar, just moments before meeting with the local employment lunch.
The municipality closed 2024 with 3,591 unemployed, «317 fewer than at the beginning of the year, a figure that has not been recorded for almost two decades. These are historical data because they were not recorded in the unemployment trend in 2009.
Since 2009, there has been an increase with peaks reaching the highest levels in March 2013, with over 8,000 unemployed. From there, a slight decrease, but it continued, managing to place the number of unemployed below 7,000 by the end of 2014.
In 2015, it dropped significantly below this figure, decreasing until it stood at just over 5,500 unemployed in December 2016. This decrease continued, repeating in the figures of 2018 that did not exceed 5,000, as happened in 2019. The following year, unemployment increased, to stabilize again in the third quarter of 2021 with a sharp drop that led to the end of the year with just over 4,000 unemployed. «And the year I just finished, 2024, the figures were reduced to 3,591 unemployed. Falling even further in June, with 3,579 people swelling the unemployment lists. «
The mayor emphasized the evolution of unemployment by sectors. «In absolute values, the decrease produced in the services sector stands out, with 303 people, representing -11.59%. Being the industry that leads the statistics, with 16.82%. The city’s revitalization is a tangible reality in the numbers that translate into a significant decrease in the number of unemployed coinciding with the scheduled mass events.
These data, he said, «will be examined in the local employment chart this month, where local training and development programs will be addressed, carried out in collaboration with different regional institutions and agencies, national and community field.»
He also recalled that the main objective of the programs is the interaction of the students in carrying out the works, to provide quality training that combines real practices, contributing to the beauty of the city and ultimately making the protagonists of execution the beneficiaries of the programs.
Among the main challenges is the expansion of collaboration with different business sectors, as well as with entities and associations, to facilitate the performance of the participants’ practices in the training and coaching programs in coordination for their job placement.
Consultations in the area of workforce information and guidance obtained, said 4,075 in the different services provided. Becoming an increasing prominence of the Network Council. «In 2024, the significant number of companies that requested operators for the construction of a photovoltaic park, as well as companies specialized in the construction of metal structures and renewable energy, stands out. And construction companies for high-speed train works”.
31,248 users are registered on the online platform. In the last year, 1,000 new registrations have been received. 23.99% of web users, 10,043, are from Lorca. «But the presence of a significant flow of people from Frankfurt and New York, occupying the third and sixth places, respectively, is significant. The Local Development Department and the occupation have developed specific training plans based on the occupations and profiles of the unemployed population. Participation in the group to which it is directed”, detailed.
He added that «689 jobs were offered. 154 of them in the services sector. The greatest needs in this sector were in the data that coincided with Easter, the September Fair, San Clemente, and the New Year’s Festival.»
Public or social utility work was carried out, «Learning and qualification alternation. Among them, actions taken in maintaining their environments and gardens are classified in Hermitage of Health, Peñica, and Calvario. And from the urban scene, with lighting projects, locksmiths, and gardening, in the atrium of the old church in San Pedro, the Clausto de La Merced, Atrium of San Cristóbal, Alameda Virgen de Las Huertas, and number 8 of the Corte de Podgorie», he reviewed.
He also added that regional employment councils allowed for the conditioning of green areas not only in the city but also in districts like Zarcilla de Ramos and Coy. «In professional certificates, 85 students participated, with theoretical training and professional practices, not relaxed, in collaborating companies. And 32 under 30 years of training and employment with practices in senior and day care centers, associations like Apandis, Alzheimer, and Parkinson, and the Municipal School for Children”.
Another 32, «focused on welding, with body and reinforcement actions of the Christ of Calvario, the repair of Farola, in Parque El Espejico, and the palette gates. Meanwhile, the decorative revolution of the hermitage of Aguaderas, Los Morotes, the local police, and social spaces, 32 students, over 25 years old, attributed to the ALFA program”, he referred to.
These actions allow the unemployed to participate in the programs developed by the Local Development Department «to have a first contact with the reality of the working world. To do this, there is a network of companies that collaborate to meet their non-laboratory professional practices. Last year they collaborated with the council almost half a hundred firms”, said Gil Jódar.
The economic amount managed in work projects in 2024 by the Local Development Department and employment is almost 5 million euros. Of these, 4.5 subsidies were received and the municipal contribution of almost 400,000 euros. «For the year I just started, the economic amount for the management of work projects exceeds 6.2 million euros. Subsidies are planned for an amount of 4.9 million. And the municipal economic effort will involve more than 1.3 million euros. In 2024, the beneficiaries of different employment and training programs added up to 624”. In 2025, this figure will extend to 650”, he said.
Finally, the mayor thanked the work done by the Local Development and Employment Department. «Undoubtedly, these statistics that I have obtained are the result of the effort and activity of the officials and workers of this department and its head, Mayor Rosa María Medina Mínguez. Unemployment has reached historic lows. However, we do not give up and will continue to insist on further reducing these figures.»