MADRID, 24 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Asempleo warns in its latest report of the growth of youth unemployment in Spain, which skyrocketed, at the end of the third quarter, to 540,000 unemployed, adding 72,000 new unemployed under 25 years of age in just three months.
Thus, the weight of this group over the total number of unemployed has risen to 18.1%, which means that one in five unemployed in Spain is a young person under 25 years of age.
By gender, there are more young men unemployed than women. Men under 25 years of age represent 20.6% of male unemployment, a percentage that has not been reached since 2009, while women under 25 years of age represent 16.1% of all unemployment, returning to 2013 records.
Despite the fact that the weight of this group is lower than that registered at the beginning of the 2008 financial crisis, Asempleo highlights that the number of unemployed is greater.
Thus, while men under 25 years of age reached 217,000 unemployed in the third quarter of 2007, this figure closed the third quarter of this year at 276,000. For their part, there were 244,000 women under the age of 25 in 2007 and now, in the same period in 2022, there are 264,000.
“The tailwinds that were pushing the recovery of employment have ceased and this becomes more evident in the dynamics of certain groups such as the long-term unemployed, those over 45 years of age or youth unemployment,” advises Asempleo.
At the end of the third quarter of the year, Spain once again registered a youth unemployment rate of over 30%, halting the decline that it had been experiencing since the third quarter of 2020. Thus, the current youth unemployment rate (33.4% ) is 13 points higher than that existing at the start of the 2008 financial crisis.
“This shows the lack of job opportunities and employment gateways for Spanish youth, a scarce or inefficient employment policy and little use of new talent that ends up looking outside for what they cannot find within our borders,” explains Asempleo, which adds that this is evident in the high level of training of young Spaniards, with only 6.3% of primary studies or lower.
For the employers of private employment agencies, this is how “the great step” is confirmed between what the labor market demands and the training received by young people.
Asempleo also recalled that Spain leads youth unemployment in Europe. While the average European youth unemployment rate stands at 16.5%, Spain doubles this figure, being the only country with a rate above 30%.
“Unemployment in this country continues in full social metastasis and is on its way to becoming, if it is not already, a serious problem in the short and medium term,” underlines the employers’ association of private employment agencies in its report.