Spain: 1 in 5 out of Work !
 

BBC's doom & gloom news today: Spain's unemployment rate has hit 20% for the first time in nearly 13 years, official figures have shown.

There were 4,612,700 people unemployed in the country at the end of March, the national statistics agency INE said.

Spain's jobless rate has risen sharply during the economic downturn and is the highest in the eurozone. end quote.

# The real figure is probably a lot higher !.... hey but "things can only get better" ... I look forward to the new boom - so be ready people - skill up, gen-up and learn the lingo - learn the lesson !

Re: Spain: 1 in 5 out of Work !
 

not really new news - but if the BBC is saying it maybe my dad in the UK will finally believe me!

Re: Spain: 1 in 5 out of Work !
 

It would be interesting to know how this breaks down by location. I have a feeling that the rich cities aren't doing as badly as the poor countryside.

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Yes when I go back to London for a business meeting people say "at least the situation in Spain can't be as bad as here" and this from businessmen! Tells me something about the lack of international news in the UK media

Re: Spain: 1 in 5 out of Work !
 

Discussed on the Esuri thread today. Link I put on says 30% in málaga province:( Usually drops a bit during the summer season!

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...614581&page=27

Re: Spain: 1 in 5 out of Work !
 

A truly awful figure, but....there is conversely a huge "black economy".

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Yes that is true but equally (according to spanish forums) all those who are not receiving unemployment benefit are not included:blink:

Re: Spain: 1 in 5 out of Work !
 

I'd be willing to bet a lot of the unemployed, are working in the black economy.

Re: Spain: 1 in 5 out of Work !
 

Those figures are truly horrendous, but I must be living in a bubble because all my Spanish friends and acquaintances are employed, and I live in what is considered a 'poor' area.

Re: Spain: 1 in 5 out of Work !
 

You can't blame them as there are no handouts or free rents as in the UK if you have no income you have to depend on friends and family or Caritas just to get enough to eat. There are more and more young middle class turning up at feeding centres just as there was in 1992 when we arrived in Spain. There was 22% unemployed and the rate of exchange was 166 pesetas to the pound and British pensioners were going back to the UK in droves as they couldn't manage on the state pension which was all many of them had and a large number lived in rented property. Things are worse if you are unemployed in big cities Madrid is full of unfinished housing estates which the Spanish buyers have paid up to half the price for and now have to repay their mortgage for homes that are unlikely to be completed or have services for a long time to come , if ever.

Re: Spain: 1 in 5 out of Work !
 

I'm lucky enough to be back in work (after a year out of work in the UK). I think that certain areas have held up - for example shops, as the low pound has attracted millions of tourists to the UK, well most of them to London and Oxford it seems. The IT industry has been very severly hit, but indications I'm getting from the IT contractors forum is that things have picked up a little in the last 3 months. A lot of concern though from contractors working on public projects as they realise that those projects will be cut after the election.
I suspect also that levels of unemployment are probably similar in the two countries, just that the way of measuring it is different. There are certainly plenty of people without a job in the UK:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...-inactive.html

I see desperate people every day on my long journey into work in north London. Yet if you go down Charing Cross, Notting Hill or London Bridge there are plenty of affluent people. They say the "poor are always with us", I suspect "the rich" are always there too!

Re: Spain: 1 in 5 out of Work !
 

Here's an interesting breakdown of the unemployment figures in the different regions on an English-language blog:

http://oreneta.com/kalebeul/2010/04/...n-on-the-dole/

In Andalucia there are 2,891,000 people in work, supporting 1,081,000 people out of work
In Catalunya there are 3,099,000 people in work, supporting 676,000 people out of work
In Madrid (province) there are 2,863,000 people in work, supporting 552,000 people out of work.
Perhaps the best ratio is in the Basque country: 928,000 people in work, supporting 113,000 people out of work. (Asturias and Cantabria appear to have a lower level of unemployment too)

So, based on those figures, the best places to find work are in Catalunya, Madrid and the Basque country, although to be fair the figures do not (and cannot) take account of (possibly seasonal ) black economy work.

Re: Spain: 1 in 5 out of Work !
 

Interesting!

So our our 'Hondon' regions beong Valanciana and Murcia - it's about 23% [SCARY :eek:].. although for sure with the Costas along here there is a BIG - I mean BIG black economy and seasonal work and many exPats don't register as unemployed (how they manage I just don't know).

Re: Spain: 1 in 5 out of Work !
 

If anyone wants to compare - here are the UK 'employment stats' - http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=12

? :confused:

Re: Spain: 1 in 5 out of Work !
 

A spanish friend claims that the black economy is not so large now on the CDS as they have been doing many inspections in bars and restaurants since the recession. I also read in Sur that the jobless figure is higher because only those receiving unemployment benefit are counted.

Re: Spain: 1 in 5 out of Work !
 

Only those registered on the "paro" are counted. But once your paro runs out you get no money. So the only possible people missing would be those who are tired of having to sign on every 3 months.

However, given that everyone on the paro has been guarenteed a 450 euro payment per month recently, they would have to be stupid not to be registered.

Re: Spain: 1 in 5 out of Work !
 

i only witnessed the tail end of the last recession in Spain and remember thinking how cheap everything had become. You could buy a small house for £10,000 and a coffee and brandy cost 100 Pesetas, about 30P.

I happened to look in an estate agent's window yesterday, and that house now costs £90K and my coffee and brandy cost me £4.

I've just realised that I looked in the same estate agent's window in 1992, and had my coffee in the same adjoining bar, both Spanish owned. All the English places from around that era have long gone, along with the people, apart from an old man I recognised who was sitting in his usual place, sipping his beer with a dog on his lap.

I nearly asked him if it was the same dog, but it would have to be 18 years old and I didn't want to upset the old man.

Re: Spain: 1 in 5 out of Work !
 

The Spanish system stinks as it does not encourage people on short contracts ie six months to look for new jobs as they get their benefit paid for the next six months and are able to catch up with outstanding jobs they have promised to do for the neighbours at 8-10 euros an hour.This can include, building work, plumbing, gardening, painting, cutting down or trimming trees etc etc while their wives are doing cleaning jobs after a 6 month stint as a supermarket checkout girl and also getting benefit. You could almost argue that THERE ARE NO UNEMPLOYED in a great part of the working classes. Just six months on the black and rich and six months poor on the minimum wages.

Re: Spain: 1 in 5 out of Work !
 

It doesnt work like that :thumbdown:

You need to work for 2 years in order to get 6 months benefit. If you have a 6 month contract, you'll only get 1 month of paro, if that

Re: Spain: 1 in 5 out of Work !
 

:thumbdown:
8-10 Euros an hour for gardening or a bit of painting? Even in the UK you'd be lucky to get 6 an hour.
I don't buy this Daily Mail "if people have access to benefits they don't want to work". My partner received several hundred pounds tax credit and housing benefit when I was unemployed, but I still preferred to seek out work (despite the 5 hours commute I currently do a day). For a lot of us, being forced to stay at home drives us up the wall. When advertised jobs receive 150 or 200 applications (and that's just in the UK, may be higher in Spain) you can be sure there are plenty of people wanting to work

Re: Spain: 1 in 5 out of Work !
 

In the 1990's I bought three houses for friends in Oliva at 4000 pounds each ie one million pesetas. They are now very desirable village houses.
A bottle of gas was 800 pesetas and my rates and rubbish together were 10.000 pesetas a year.

Re: Spain: 1 in 5 out of Work !
 

Once you have worked for the first two years and are in the system, if you have children then you get the benefit. An English neighbour who had been made redundant after only a year with wife and child got nothing. A student of mine who worked as an executive for a famous building company was made redundant when the company went bust and decided not to look for a job until after the summer as she was entitled to one year's dole money. She now works for a bank and hopes to get a permanent contract. Most permanent Spanish orange pickers work 6-8 months on and 4-6 on the dole and their wives who work in the orange factories do the same.

Re: Spain: 1 in 5 out of Work !
 

Listening to the Spanish radio today, they were saying that the populaton has grown in Spain, but the number of "households" has gone down, that is because a lot the youngsters and not so young "children" that had independantised, have now returned home to live with parents.

The job situation with this age group is very high and as there have been job losses, they have been unable to continue living alone and being independant from their parents.

Re: Spain: 1 in 5 out of Work !
 

I read some time ago that the average age in Spain to leave the nest is 30 for men and 25 for women. Shove them out at 18 is my philosophy even if it's only to go to university or college. There are too many cuckoos in the nests.

Re: Spain: 1 in 5 out of Work !
 

It is not that simple, if they dont have a job, they cant pay for their own living expenses.

And when most go to university, the sacrifice that the family have to make to send them there can be crippling, especially if it is in one of the big cities.

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Apparently many rich parents refuse to pay and if their children are over 18 and skint and have the marks required to get a place then they go on a grant and the parents may be shamed in the Daily Mail but cannot be obliged to pay. Or so I am led to believe.

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Are you on the pop today? Jose Luis was obviously talking about Spanish students.

Maybe I'm under the influence and don't realise it :eek:

Re: Spain: 1 in 5 out of Work !
 

I thought he was thinking of his own children and how much they had cost him. He tends to be a bit ambiguous. What's with the Jose Luis I thought Spanish was verboten.

Re: Spain: 1 in 5 out of Work !
 

On TV a few weeks ago said that many Spanish on the CDS who came from other areas of Spain have returned to families as there is no work and they cannot pay the high coastal rents.

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I shall try to be less ambiguous in future, and you should take more water with it..............:rofl::rofl:

Re: Spain: 1 in 5 out of Work !
 

It is happening all over and causes a lot of embarassment, as some of those involved already waited years to become independant.

It must be hard to have to give up an independant life, to back to live with parents, I know quite a few, whose social life, and now sex life, has almost disapeared.
:thumbdown:

Re: Spain: 1 in 5 out of Work !
 

:confused::confused:

Are you talking about Spain, the country that is next to Portugal?

Re: Spain: 1 in 5 out of Work !
 

I'm, talking about the Spanish people I have known over the last 18 years both where I live now and in Oliva. Incidently in the 60's in Andalucia most men had three jobs but of course there was no benefits paid then and most wives didn't work and they had lots of children. Everyone in Spain knows several little men when they need some work done and nobody cares if its the black economy.

Re: Spain: 1 in 5 out of Work !
 

I'd be willing to bet that a good amount of the "unemployed" fall into this category !

Re: Spain: 1 in 5 out of Work !
 

Funny that all the history books of the period state that many Andaluces had to migrate to find work - there was a huge migration to Barcelona too. One wonders why they left if they already had 3 jobs each :huh:

http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-12983.html

Re: Spain: 1 in 5 out of Work !
 

Thank you for the information, I shall mention it, if I just happen to bump into any Spanish that are worried about their future, I shall tell them the brutal truth, that there is no unemployment inSpain, it is a vicious rumour started by people with no jobs. :huh::huh::huh::huh:

Oh THAT Spain........

Re: Spain: 1 in 5 out of Work !
 

[QUOTE=steviedeluxe;8537016]Funny that all the history books of the period state that many Andaluces had to migrate to find work - there was a huge migration to Barcelona too. One wonders why they left if they already had 3 jobs each :huh:


Good point.


Do some posters think it was to study another language........or taking a gap year or decade........:rofl::rofl:

Or maybe they had made so much money with their 3 jobs they just wanted to travel in style.......

Re: Spain: 1 in 5 out of Work !
 

After the Spanish civil war many people left Spain for political reasons and did not return until Franco died.During those years .They went to South America and parts of Europe where they had families and work was plentiful. That left a shortage of tradesmen to cater for the upper and middle classes who desperately needed workers and a demand for catering staff as the beginning of the package deals had arrived and there was massive building along the coasts. Many people were lured to Barcelona to work in factories where wages were the highest in Spain. However those left to work in Andalucia needed to work all the hours they could just to keep afloat. No one wanted to work three jobs.

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I find your reply offensive just read carefully what I wrote and if you want to quote me do it in context No one has more sympathy for the unemployed than I do.

Re: Spain: 1 in 5 out of Work !
 

Really? you could have fooled me.

I have just re read your post and I still see the same as before.

Could you please point to the part that shows the sympathy you mention.


I did not take it out of context.

Also some of us posters on here know a little bit about Spain too, you know.