Since the start of the global financial crisis, Spain’s rates of youth unemployment and underemployment have been among the highest in Europe. As a result of changes to the country’s labour laws, the number of young workers with permanent contracts has increased by 142%.
The rise is proof that the Socialist-led government’s labour reform, which has been in place for nine months, is undoing the simple hire-and-fire policies put in place following the sovereign debt crisis ten years ago. Those policies were praised at the time for putting the nation on a low-cost, competitive footing but also criticised for eroding workers’ rights and driving many young Spaniards to emigrate.
According to the National Statistics Office, INE, youth unemployment rates, which peaked at more than 55% in the years following the financial crisis, decreased to 31% in the third quarter, versus a 12.6% national unemployment rate.
Southern European nations consistently struggle with high rates of youth unemployment. According to Eurostat, one in four young people in Italy were jobless over the summer.
Greece, whose rates of youth unemployment are comparable to those of Spain, plans to lower its youth unemployment rate to 18% by 2030 and is doing so by implementing specific training programmes, pension and health fund subsidies, and labour cost reduction measures.
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