The Future of Spanish Youth

The Future of Spanish Youth

Spain is a beautiful country with a rich history of culture, politics, food, and tradition. However, since the early 70s, Spain has been battling with a problem that a lot of Southern European countries are facing; unemployment. Let’s look at some of the facts, and explore how Spain hopes to deal with this issue in the years to come.

The Institute of National Statistics (INE), reports that Spain's unemployment rate is between 9.6% and 23.1%, one of the highest in Europe. The lowest rates of employment are that of Extremadura and Andalucia, in the south of the country. Some wealthier states like the Basque Country and Catalonia still only lower the Spain national average to 14.5%. Compared to that of France (Between 8% and 11%) or the UK or germany (between 3.5% and 5%), you can start to understand the significance of the problem.

Spain's unemployment issues can be traced back to the 70s and 80s, after many years of Franco era reforms left much of Spain in economic distress. During this time, trade union activism was banned, social welfare was in a poor state, and nearly 2.7 million jobs in the agriculture sector were replaced by 1.1 million jobs in the public sector. Despite many attempts to correct the downwards trend in the 1990s, the financial crash of 2008 dealt a devastating blow to Spain.

Spain's past

Spain’s past might give us the answers as to why unemployment is so high, but who has been affected the most? That would be the Spanish youth. 57% of people between the ages of 15 and 24 are currently unemployed, and with young people in Spain generally having less work experience than older workers, that number is set to rise. Factor in student dropouts, fewer work contracts, and a large population of the youth moving abroad to work, let’s see what Spain is doing to reduce the unemployment rate?

The Covid-19 pandemic has been a hindrance to the world, and unfortunately, the economic climate is not conducive to fixing Spain’s unemployment issues. However, Spain has improved its welfare system since the 90s, and a few significant changes have greatly helped during these testing times. The current welfare system for unemployment provides roughly 70% of full pay for those who have contributed to the social system in the past. For those who are seeking first time employment, the Northern Spanish industry continues to grow, which hopefully will lead to more new jobs. Despite these opportunities however, the south of Spain still struggles significantly more than the north.

Unemployment is an issue that every country faces, and with only Greece surpassing Spain’s national average, the situation seems dire. Hopefully moving forward, past the aftermath of Covid-19, Spain can start to tackle these issues in an attempt to stabilize its economy.