Unemployment in Spain

Map of unemployment by province. Unemployment is a big problem in the south and west of Spain, especially in the least industrialized zones and the areas that were exposed most to the Spanish property bubble.

Unemployment is a worldwide problem but in Spain it is higher than in other Western European countries. Unemployment fell to 8% between 2006 and 2007 but from the Spanish economic crisis of 2008 the rate quickly rose past 20% in 2010 and 25% in 2012. Unemployment in some regions of Spain is slightly less than in others, but it tends to be one of the highest in the European Union whatever the state of the economy.

Introduction

Spain has one of the highest unemployment rates compared to other OECD countries. The Q4 2017 unemployment rate is 16.6% of labor force. There has been an upward trend since the 1990s, and this trend has historic roots. Unemployment began rising during the Francisco Franco dictatorship in the 1970s. During the Francoist Spain, trade union activism was prohibited and social security benefits of the modern welfare state were lacking. In 1972, 2.7 million jobs in agriculture were replaced by 1.1 million jobs in the public sector further increasing unemployment. Although unemployment is a problem in other OECD countries as well such as Italy and Turkey, data shows that the extent of increase and the persistence is much larger in Spain. Moreover, Catholic countries such as Spain often have very low female workers participation rate, accordingly the unemployment rate may worsen with a new generation of women beginning to pursue work. Net employment creation has been negative since 1973; meaning new jobs aren’t being created to sustain development.

Causes

Spain suffers a high level of structural unemployment. From the economic and financial crisis of the 1980s, unemployment has never dipped below 8%. Spain is the OECD country with the highest unemployment rate, ahead of Ireland and Greece. The main causes are an economy based mostly on tourism and building sectors, and lack of industry. The most industrialized region is Basque Country (where industry is around 20–25% of its GDP); its unemployment rate is 2.5 times lower than those of Andalusia and Canary Islands (where industry is only 5–10% of their respective GDP). In the last thirty years the Spanish unemployment rate has hovered around double the average of developed countries, both in times of growth as in crisis. From the start of the crisis of the 1990s, unemployment fell from 3.6 million to two million, but that figure stagnated throughout the good times to the present crisis.

Consequences

Unemployment benefits are high enough in Spain to sustain basic expenses, though special consideration is only given to those in the first year of being unemployed. Those that are unemployed are at the risk of losing their home. According to research data by amnesty international, thousands of people are being forcibly evicted without alternative accommodation by the state. Amongst these include approximately 26,800 rental evictions and 17,000 mortgage evictions. As unemployment is increasingly high in Spain, there is limited public spending on housing that would grant necessary shelter. Women traditionally are not trained for the workforce; therefore single mothers and survivors of gender violence are particularly affected. This is however changing with a rise of women enrolling in higher education. Recently in July, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights upheld a complaint against Spain for not having means of alternative housing for evicted families. Due to high unemployment levels, employed workers are afraid of losing their jobs and are more reluctant to refute existing working conditions. There are reforms being undertaken by the government in Spain to address this, including reduction of temporary work contracts.

Socio-economic consequences

Unemployment reduces household income and therefore domestic consumption and quality of life. The mental health of the unemployed and their families deteriorates. The emancipation period is extended and therefore the birth rate decreases as it is difficult to start a family with minimal economic guarantees. Social exclusion is triggered, evictions increase, and families start to default on bills for basic utilities such as water, electricity and gas, leading to energy poverty.

Unemployment and inclusion of people with disabilities

There are efforts in Spain to include people with disabilities into the workforce. These efforts include a plan to normalize disability in the work environment with training and professional development implementation. According to the survey of the Spanish National Statistics Institute, 8.5% of the population in Spain is disabled. Disability is more associated with age, as more than 34.7% disabled individuals are over 65. According to data, there are more women disabled than men. In general, disabled people have difficulties carrying out basic activities and due to these hardships many people argue that government and economic help is imperative. One of the main problems the disabled population faces is unemployment. More than 87.1% of disabled people that are able to work don’t have a job, and they often have difficulty finding one due to labor market barriers. Some factors addressing unemployment amongst the disabled include insufficient education, lack of information, negative attitude amongst some employers and HR representatives, and insufficient means of transportation or training. As there are measures being taken to promote employment amongst the disabled, there is growth in the number of disabled seeking a job. One measure is the Law for Disabled People’s Social Integration, which requires companies with more than 50 workers to employ at least 2% disabled workers.

International impact

The dramatic unemployment in Spain and its consequence make the headlines in Spain and internationally.

Unemployment rate

It is obtained through a procedure known as Economically Active Population Survey. In fact, it is a survey made every three months to some homes about their recent work history. The survey divides the population of 16 years or more in four groups:

• Occupied people: Those who have carried out paid work, as well as those that have jobs but are absent because of illness, strikes or holiday.
• Unemployed: are the people that are not occupied, but that they have sought work actively or are waiting to return to work. More exactly, 1) a person is unemployed if he/she is not working and has made specific efforts to find employ during the last four weeks; 2) has been suspended from employment and is waiting to be called new or 3) is waiting to occupy a job the following month.
• Inactive: This category includes the percentage of adult population that is studying, does household chores, is retired, is too sick to work or if is simply not looking for work.
• Active Population: includes persons who are both employed and the unemployed.

The unemployment rate is calculated as the number of unemployed workers divided into the active population, and it is expressed as a percentage. In other words, it is not a proportion between the total of the unemployed people and the total population, but economically active people.

Women in the Economy

During the Franco dictatorship, women found themselves living under a conservative gender ideology where the nationalization of who they were became labeled as being consumers and producers of the market economy. Under the authoritarian system being dictated by Franco, nationalistic pride situated women in a role meant to serve best the state and the nation which consisted in the domestic work of nurturing and caring for children. If these roles steered outside the household they were best funneled through the work sector of teaching and nursing. The culture of Spain with its fluctuation of political leadership visibly demonstrates the fluctuation of sovereignty for women’s rights in the country. Between 1931-1936, the Second Republic generated legislation for women granting them new rights of which they were deprived of prior to. During this period of time, European countries were experiencing a movement towards the equalization of the sexes and that was reflected in the constitution of the new Republic which extensively accorded women legitimate status under laws on civil marriage and divorce. With Franco’s uprising into dictatorship, legal measures that progressed women into the social and economic sector of equal access into the labor market became restricted once again under the desire of restricting women to the confines of the private sphere of domestic work.

The period of transition to democracy carved the way for the reemergence of women in social and economic participation. A revival of sorts for women took initiative in the late 1970’s with the re-emergence of legality in the social atmosphere of Spain, in particular to the restoration of free and equal access to work and right to hire. With women being able to return to the workplace a significant shift took place in relation to the family life, where domestic life for women was shifting away from normality and into career pursuits. During La Transicion, participation rates in the labor force steadily grew due to structural shifts in education and birth rate decreases which impacted an increased rate in 1975 of 30.20, followed by 34.71 in 1982, and 41.20 in 1986. In addition to the progression of women in the workforce, the elimination of Franco’s “Fuera del Trabajo” in 1938, which enforced the replacement of women workers with men, serves as a reminder of how far woman have come in terms of women’s active role in the economic development of Spain. Although progress has been made, it is still from being considered a pure gender equal state. A wage gap exists in Spain where in 2005, women residing in Spain earned less than what men did by 72 percent.

Due to legislation better serving opportunities for women, this once marginalized group has seen progress within the country of Spain, but not to the extent of where it needs to be in the 21st century. On March 8 of 2018, Spain underwent a 24 hour strike on International Women’s Day where women were backed by unions in support of gender equality between women and men. Roughly 5.3 million people went on strike which was representative of both men and women participation since Spain’s union laws prohibit strikes if applied to one of the sexes, ultimately resulting in a turnout representing 11 percent of the population and 23 percent of the labor force. Justification for the strike appeared to be approved by 82 percent of people, and, as argued by the participants of the strike, although previous legislation has to an extent helped women, Spain’s public sector still finds that men make an average of 13 percent more than women and 19 percent more than women in the private sector. In 2016, women in the European Union were on average earning gross hourly earnings 16.2 percent below those of their male counterparts. According to reports by Eurostat, the “explained” gender gap in Spain is roughly 4 percent in account of variation in characteristics for both women and men in regards to the occupational and sectoral segregation in the labor markets.

See also

• Unemployment
• Financial crisis of 2007–08
• Spanish property bubble
• Eviction

References

This article was adapted from the equivalent Spanish-language Wikipedia article on April 20, 2013.

External links

• Spain Unemployment
• Spain records sharpest fall in unemployment since adopting the euro