Very long-term unemployment has become entrenched after the pandemic and nearly a million people have been in this situation for more than two years
Long-term unemployment is entrenched in Spain, despite the good behavior of the labor market in the past two years after the pandemic. This has been Spain’s big pending problem for years: achieving lower unemployment levels to converge with the European average. Without success. The unemployment rate has fallen to 2008 levels but is still above 12%, the highest in all of Europe.
Worse yet, nearly half of the nearly three million registered unemployed have been actively looking for work for more than a year. Specifically, in the second quarter of 2022 there were more than 1.4 million long-term unemployed, or 47.8% of the total, according to a report published Monday by Asempleo, the employers’ organization ETT, which warns that this means “one in the two unemployed in Spain are experiencing serious difficulties in finding a job at the risk of being sent out of the labor market and without any kind of benefits.”
Paradoxically, although the number of unemployed has decreased thanks to the short term, this group, the most vulnerable group, which is largely made up of over-50s, has increased significantly as a result of the pandemic and is now 0.9% of the total in the second quarter of 2022 to the current 47.8%, approaching the level of 2013, when the Spanish labor market recorded the worst figures ever, with more than 62% long-term unemployed.
And not only that: for the fifth consecutive quarter, the number of people looking for work without finding it for at least two years is growing, reaching 954,400 unemployed, 16,600 more than a year ago. Since 2014, there have not been five consecutive quarters of an increase in the number of long-term unemployed, Adecco said in another report published Monday.
Of those million people, nearly 400,000 have been in this dire situation for more than four years, 12.4% of the total, levels not seen since 2014. Spain, together with Italy, is not only the country with the most unemployment, but with more very very long-term unemployment.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
