# Looking for work in Spain?



## Madliz (Feb 4, 2011)

Then you'd do well to read this article from the FT - "Since the financial crisis hit, young Spaniards’ lives have been put on hold. Youth unemployment stands at 55 per cent – second in the EU only to Greece – and almost half of under-30s still live with their parents."

http://http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/5908da36-db09-11e3-8273-00144feabdc0.html#slide10

It's extremely sad. If anyone is thinking of coming to Spain to look for work, be warned.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Madliz said:


> Then you'd do well to read this article from the FT - "Since the financial crisis hit, young Spaniards’ lives have been put on hold. Youth unemployment stands at 55 per cent – second in the EU only to Greece – and almost half of under-30s still live with their parents."
> 
> http://http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/5908da36-db09-11e3-8273-00144feabdc0.html#slide10
> 
> It's extremely sad. If anyone is thinking of coming to Spain to look for work, be warned.


Absolutely!
If young singles want to come and try their luck here then come on over, but they need to make sure they know what they are coming to
The link doesn't work, try this one
Generation Spain - FT.com
or the word document


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Madliz said:


> Then you'd do well to read this article from the FT - "Since the financial crisis hit, young Spaniards’ lives have been put on hold. Youth unemployment stands at 55 per cent – second in the EU only to Greece – and almost half of under-30s still live with their parents."
> 
> http://http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/5908da36-db09-11e3-8273-00144feabdc0.html#slide10
> 
> It's extremely sad. If anyone is thinking of coming to Spain to look for work, be warned.


I dare say you'll be told you're being negative.

The piece might have a wider impact if it were reprinted in the tabloids. I'm guessing that not that many plumbers, gardeners, nail 'technicians' etc. read the FT from cover to cover.

Added to which you can't read it free on-line....


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## Chopera (Apr 22, 2013)

Regarding the youth unemployment stats, while I don't in any way deny there is a huge problem, we should be aware that the way those published statistics are measured in Spain makes them look a lot worse than they are because they don't count students. So if you have say 1 million youths, of whom 500,000 are studying and 250,000 are unemployed, they count the youth unemployment rate at 250,000/500,000=50%. They ignore the 500,000 students altogether. If they included the students then the rate would be 250,000/1,000,000=25%. And of course in a recession youths tend to stick to studying if they can, so the statistics get skewed even more.


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## freezer2k (Apr 22, 2014)

I think at least some off this stuff is happening everywhere, not specific to Spain. 

Jobs that require low qualifications are always subject to either be replaced by a machine or a cheaper worker...
If they quit school prematurely, that's just really not a very smart move. 

And if it's like Chopera said, then this article seems a bit populist.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Chopera said:


> Regarding the youth unemployment stats, while I don't in any way deny there is a huge problem, we should be aware that the way those published statistics are measured in Spain makes them look a lot worse than they are because they don't count students. So if you have say 1 million youths, of whom 500,000 are studying and 250,000 are unemployed, they count the youth unemployment rate at 250,000/500,000=50%. They ignore the 500,000 students altogether. If they included the students then the rate would be 250,000/1,000,000=25%. And of course in a recession youths tend to stick to studying if they can, so the statistics get skewed even more.


I haven't read the article yet, just skimmed it, but are the stats Spanish or European or ??
If countries are compared they should be using like for like numbers, shouldn't they?


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

freezer2k said:


> I think at least some off this stuff is happening everywhere, not specific to Spain.
> 
> Jobs that require low qualifications are always subject to either be replaced by a machine or a cheaper worker...
> If they quit school prematurely, that's just really not a very smart move.
> ...


When stats are compared it's always Spain that comes out "top" in unemployment and even more so in youth unemployment so there really isn't any doubt about this country's position in the table. Google youth unemployment images and it's all there in graphs and tables!
That there is youth unemployment in many EU countries is true, but it's also true that the numbers are higher here for what ever reasons.
As for quitting school not being smart, nor is it it smart for a country to educate masses of the population to university level, which is what is happening now, when a) Not everyone benefits from uni education b) There aren't enough graduate jobs to go round (and even pre crisis there weren't) c) It costs the country as much as a uni education costs


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

freezer2k said:


> I think at least some off this stuff is happening everywhere, not specific to Spain.
> 
> Jobs that require low qualifications are always subject to either be replaced by a machine or a cheaper worker...
> If they quit school prematurely, that's just really not a very smart move.
> ...


Populist as opposed to elitist??
I dislike the use of that word. It disparages the majority of ordinary people and has undertones of condescension. The Guardian commentators use it a lot to put down views that overhalf the UK population hold.
Of course, it may be that the FT's stats are inaccurate and as you say youth unemployment is not confined to Spain.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Pesky Wesky said:


> When stats are compared it's always Spain that comes out "top" in unemployment and even more so in youth unemployment so there really isn't any doubt about this country's position in the table. Google youth unemployment images and it's all there in graphs and tables!
> That there is youth unemployment in many EU countries is true, but it's also true that the numbers are higher here for what ever reasons.
> As for quitting school not being smart, nor is it it smart for a country to educate masses of the population to university level, which is what is happening now, when a) Not everyone benefits from uni education b) There aren't enough graduate jobs to go round (and even pre crisis there weren't) c) It costs the country as much as a uni education costs


Spot on about sending people off to uni to get spurious degrees from poor quality academic institutions. When so many people have degrees the value is inevitably cheapened.
Many employers are now looking at the institution which awarded the degree and the subject of study when considering job applicants. It's one way to get some kind of quality control, I guess.


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## gus-lopez (Jan 4, 2010)

Chopera said:


> Regarding the youth unemployment stats, while I don't in any way deny there is a huge problem, we should be aware that the way those published statistics are measured in Spain makes them look a lot worse than they are because they don't count students. So if you have say 1 million youths, of whom 500,000 are studying and 250,000 are unemployed, they count the youth unemployment rate at 250,000/500,000=50%. They ignore the 500,000 students altogether. If they included the students then the rate would be 250,000/1,000,000=25%. And of course in a recession youths tend to stick to studying if they can, so the statistics get skewed even more.


If they did include them it would be as unemployed & so the rate would be 75%.
They are included on the '% of population available to work' list of ages 16-65 , even though they are in education Still !! That skews the figures completely.


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## Justina (Jan 25, 2013)

*Academic institutions*



mrypg9 said:


> Spot on about sending people off to uni to get spurious degrees from poor quality academic institutions. When so many people have degrees the value is inevitably cheapened.
> Many employers are now looking at the institution which awarded the degree and the subject of study when considering job applicants. It's one way to get some kind of quality control, I guess.


I understood that the idea of the Russell group of universities was precisely to find a form of quality control.


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## Chopera (Apr 22, 2013)

Pesky Wesky said:


> I haven't read the article yet, just skimmed it, but are the stats Spanish or European or ??
> If countries are compared they should be using like for like numbers, shouldn't they?


Most of the EU use the same formula, as published by eurostat. In fact the FT article does touch on it as well:

"...
Spain’s youth unemployment rate now stands at 55 per cent, the second-highest in the European Union behind Greece. *One in four Spaniards between 18 and 29 is not in education, training or employment, one of the highest rates in the developed world*. Close to 1.7m Spaniards under the age of 30 are out of work, with almost 900,000 already classified as long-term unemployed, or without a job for more than a year..."


It's saying the youth unemployment rate is 55% but only 25% of Spaniards between 18 and 29 is not in education, training or employment.

My point is the media tends to use the higher value (55%) without explaining that they are not talking about 55% of all youths.

You may possibly also find that the statistics for each country changes when you include the students. Eurostat does also publish the NEET ratio (not in employment,not in education or training) and I had a quick look at the eurostat site and I think these are the NEET ratios for 2013:

Indicators

Spain has 23% - so still bad and probably the value used in the FT article - but it doesn't sound as bad as 55%, and it is not as outstandingly bad when compared to other countries (UK has 15%, and most countries are worse than that).


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## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

mrypg9 said:


> Populist as opposed to elitist??
> I dislike the use of that word. It disparages the majority of ordinary people and has undertones of condescension. The Guardian commentators use it a lot to put down views that overhalf the UK population hold.
> Of course, it may be that the FT's stats are inaccurate and as you say youth unemployment is not confined to Spain.


I disagree - it is a very good word to describe the rants of Forage, he says what people _think_ they want to hear but he has absolutely no idea of how to set about doing, nor the of the consequences of what he proposes.
Ukip and Front National lead populist earthquake - FT.com


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