Spain leaves the crimson lantern of youth unemployment in Europe | Economy | EUROtoday
The Spanish youth unemployment charge may be very excessive, 25.3% on the finish of January, in response to Eurostat. They are nearly 11 factors greater than the typical of the European Union (14.6%). Although the scenario is dramatic for the usage of employees with much less age, the Spanish determine has been enhancing strongly in recent times, which permits the nation to be eliminated sambenite which has usually accompanied him since 2019: being the nation with essentially the most youth unemployment within the European Union. Since August of final yr Romania surpasses Spain on this registry and in addition did Sweden since final January.

Until August 2019, Greece had been main youth strike for a number of years (amongst kids below 25, adjusted to seasonality) in Europe. The Hellenic nation recorded the very best charge by no means notified by a rustic in May 2013, with 62.3% of youth unemployment. At that point, southern Europe suffered the worst of the nice recession, strangled by the disaster and finances cuts. For greater than a decade Greece and Spain have shared crimson lantern in youth unemployment. The robust restoration of the Greek economic system in recent times has helped him enhance his statistics. Since August of final yr, Romania surpasses Spain on this registry and, since final January, so Sweden.
Spain and Greece alternated within the lead between 2014 and the top of 2015. Then each managed to cut back youth unemployment, however Spain did it extra strongly and Greece remained within the lead till the start of 2020.
The pandemia re -matched the youth unemployment charge of each Mediterranean nations, in order that some months there was extra youth unemployment in Greece and others in Spain. Between January 20, 2020, 2024, 50 months handed: in 24 there was extra unemployment in Greece and 26, extra in Spain. The two nations have enormously improved their youth strike in that interval, however Greece has managed to do it extra strongly since that second month of 2024. Since then it notifies a decrease unemployment charge, which is now 25.3%, in comparison with 19.5% in Greece.

Despite persevering with to cut back the youth strike, from March 2024 to July of that very same yr Spain notified the worst knowledge of the European Union. In August, Romania superior Spain with a 26.7% youth unemployment, which meant 1.2 factors greater than Spain. Since then, this nation in Eastern Europe is essentially the most unemployment of kids below 25 years of age, forward of Spain. The novelty of the most recent Eurostat knowledge, referring to the month of January, is that Sweden has additionally superior to Spain in youth unemployment: it’s 26.7%, in comparison with 25.3% Spanish. The final obtainable knowledge of Romania is December.
The proportion of younger unemployed is a volatable variable, which typically modifications from one month to a different, given the excessive seasonality that impacts the roles of the youngest affected by excessive seasonality in employment. The work on this group will increase in the summertime and Christmas months and falls within the following months. Thus, it’s foreseeable that these positions will change once more, and Spain can put again within the proportion of younger unemployed. But, on the similar time, it accumulates a whole semester with out being the nation with worse knowledge, one thing that didn’t occur earlier than the pandemic.

Without focusing the concentrate on youth unemployment, increasing to the worldwide charge, Spain is within the worst place. In January it was 10.4%, in response to Eurostat, forward of Sweden (9.7%) and Finland (8.9%). The finest knowledge is given within the Czech Republic (2.6%), Poland (additionally 2.6%) and Malta (3%). The most populated nations additionally file higher knowledge: they’re Germany (3.5%), France (7.3%) and Italy (6.3%).
Why does youth unemployment fall?
Experts in labor market level out a number of causes to clarify this enchancment in youth unemployment in Spain. In a latest report of this newspaper on this regard, Marcel Jansen, from Fedea, pointed to the pronounced fall of faculty abandonment in recent times and the reinforcement {of professional} coaching. “Many new positions demand digital skills that young people dominate,” added Francisco Mesonero, basic director of the Adecco Foundation.
The Confederal Secretary of Youth of CC OO, Adrià Junyent: “The positive data are explained because Spain is the engine of Europe’s growth” participated in the identical textual content. That is, youth unemployment may be very procyclical: it grows quite a bit in crises and falls strongly when the economic system gas. “I think that the labor reform, which ends unjustified temporary hiring, helps many young people who previously enter and leave the labor market now have a more stable career,” mentioned UGT’s counterpart, Eduardo Magaldi.
https://elpais.com/economia/2025-03-12/espana-abandona-el-farolillo-rojo-del-paro-juvenil-en-europa.html