Young people in Spain suffer the highest unemployment rate in the EU. And the financial downturn has only served to widen the gaps between the have and the have-nots in an increasingly two-tier labor market. Nothing divides Spain quite like the labor market. And the effects of the current economic crisis vary according to age, geographic location and sector. Young people are one group that is disproportionately affected by soaring unemployment, which stands at double the eurozone average. The national rate is 18.5 percent, but among Spaniards aged between 15 and 24 years old, this figure climbs as high as 37 percent, according to Eurostat. Job losses are concentrated in construction and the service industry - the same sectors that once drove the country's exponential growth. Figures from Spain's Youth Employment Observatory show the majority of workers laid off were recruited on temporary contracts , which account for a quarter of the nation's jobs, and half the jobs held by people under the age of 30.
Nothing divides Spain quite like the labor market. And the effects of the current economic crisis vary according to age, geographic location and sector.
Young people are one group that is disproportionately affected by soaring unemployment, which stands at double the eurozone average. The national rate is 18.5 percent, but among Spaniards aged between 15 and 24 years old, this figure climbs as high as 37 percent, according to Eurostat.
Job losses are concentrated in construction and the service industry - the same sectors that once drove the country's exponential growth. Figures from Spain's Youth Employment Observatory show the majority of workers laid off were recruited on temporary contracts , which account for a quarter of the nation's jobs, and half the jobs held by people under the age of 30.
There are a lot of rigidities in the Spanish labour market, and the market simply doesn't clear. But basically exploitation is the order of the day. Most of the employment created in the past 10 years was on temporary contracts or under the expedient of having people register as self-employed so the employer would not have to pay social contributions.
And it's not just the young who are suffering because of the precarious job situation (precarious even in the boom years as I have described). Ageism is rampant, as is sexism. En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
