Unemployment in Spain hits historical high

I thought unemployment among the youth only peculiar to Nigeria, I never knew the rich also cry Imagine over six million unemployed in Spain.

The National Statistics Institute today published its latest Active Population Survey (Encuesta sobre la población activa) and the report makes sombre reading. In the first three months of 2013 237.000 people became unemployed - a rise of 1.14% compared to the first term in 2012. 130,400 males lost their jobs and 107,000 lost theirs. Unemployment among young people (under 25)  has reached 57.2% and the number of families whose members are all unemployed rose by 72,400.

This means that for the first time ever there are over 6 million people in Spain without employment (the exact figure is 6.202.700) -  27.16% of the active workforce. Nearly 3 million unemployed (2,901,000) lost their jobs more than a year ago

As news came out last week that for the first time since population surveys have been carried out (1998) population in Spain had fallen by 0.4% largely due to the fact that the economic crisis has driven  over 200,000 foreign residents to return to their native countries, the INE report released today shows that unemployment among foreign residents rose by 80.500 in the first term of 2013 meaning that the rate of unemployment among foreign workers in Spain has risen to 39.21 %.


Unemployed youth in Spain

Unemployment among young adults in Spain at all-time high

According to figures released today by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 23.7 percent of young people between 15 and 29 in Spain neither work nor study, 8 points higher than the OECD average.

According to the OECD report on education across developed nations, the only country with a worse figure of unoccupied young people is Israel. As far as unemployed university graduates are concerned, Spain has the highest rate of all the OECD countries. And this year youth unemployment in Spain (unemployment among the under 25s) has reached record figures - 53.27%.

At 25.1%, Spain recorded the highest overall unemployment rate - a rise of 0.2% compared to in July. For the first time this year the unemployment rate (11.3%) in the Eurozone showed no rise with respect to the previous month.

Just last week OECD chief Angel Gurria said that Spain deserved European Union support and had the right to ask for a bailout to unlock required finances over the next two-to-three years.

Last night Mariano Rajoy appeared in his first televised interview since he was elected Prime Minister eight months ago. He insisted that he was still undecided about whether or when to ask for a bailout.