Spanish Unemployment is at Great Depression levels

[Tommy4ever]

OK, well, I was just looking at some stats (as you do) and something occured to me:

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/spain/unemployment-rate

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/US_Unemployment_1910-1960.gif

The official figure of Spanish unemployment is currently 21.3%. At the height of the Great Depression the USA (the worst effected country) had unemployment of 20-25% (didn't have exact figures then).

Bloody hell.

[Obs]

The EU's falling apart. About time, too.

[Tommy4ever]

I just never realised just how bad it was.

[Le Socialiste]

I had noticed that, too. That's just crazy, I can't believe it. Those are just the official stats, as well. I wouldn't be surprised if the numbers were a little higher than that. So I guess this means Spain is technically in a Depression? Or do they have different economic/financial standards of determining this than the US?

[Tommy4ever]

A depression is an extended period of negative or stagnant growth. For example, Japan had a depression during the 1990s. There is no official point where you reach depression - most people view it as a long recession followed by a long period without much growth where things like unemployment remain very high.

Like most countries Spain exited recession in early 2010. Since then its growth has remained very low (as has the growth of most developed countries). But Spain has been especially bad. Since exiting recession these have been the quarterly growth figures:

0.08%
0.3%
0%
0.2%
0.3%

That's pretty damn bad. Pre-recession Spain's trend quartely growth was around 0.7-1%.

This is only made worse by inflation which has been steadily rising since late 2009 and currently lies at 3.8% in Spain. Not as bad as in the UK, but still bad. However this is mostly due to commidity prices (food prices and oil prices have spiralled out of control).

If things aren't better by the end of this year then I'd definately say Spain is in a depression. And remember, this isn't some small economy like Greece or Portugal, its Spain - the 5th largest economy in the EU. Its a big deal.

[A Revolutionary Tool]

What is the real unemployment rate? You know there's "unemployment" and "real unemployment". The difference being the "unemployed" are those who actively looked for a job that month, so those that didn't aren't counting as unemployed. So the real unemployment is always higher. I wonder what that number is...

[syndicat]

Also the unemployment rate among young people in Spain is about 50 percent.

in the USA the real unemployment rate (what the Bureau of Labor Stats calls the U6 rate) is about 16 percent. In 1940 unemployment was 17 percent in the USA and the Depression was still going on. Unemployment in black communities is at depression levels in the USA.

[Ocean Seal]

I have a question on this subject though. While the EU is collapsing many Americans are blaming "socialism" or social democracy but that is keeping people closer to neoliberalism and further away from social democracy.

[Tommy4ever]

What is the real unemployment rate? You know there's "unemployment" and "real unemployment". The difference being the "unemployed" are those who actively looked for a job that month, so those that didn't aren't counting as unemployed. So the real unemployment is always higher. I wonder what that number is...

Well, if you include people like housewives, those with health problems, students etc it would be higher. But no one has ever included them.

I'll go try to find the 'employment rate' though.

*couple minutes later*

OK, I found the number of people in employment is 18.76 million.

*couple more minutes*

Ooh! Found it!

For some reason these stats only go up until 2009 though. Don't know why.

Employment rate (15+): 49%

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/spain/employment-to-population-ratio-15-plus--total-percent-wb-data.html

So half of Spaniards above the age of 15 are out of work. But this includes students, housewives, pensioners, the ill etc. So really, look at the unemployment rate of 20% - because that's 1 in 5 people who are actually looking for a job can't get a job.