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View Full Version : Unemployment rate in Spain is 21.5%!



Revy
30th October 2011, 03:29
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9QL75HO0.htm




The number of unemployed in Spain swelled to a record high of nearly 5 million in the third quarter, as a sputtering economy failed to create jobs amid mounting global financial uncertainty, according to government numbers released Friday.


The 4,978,300 unemployed amounted to a jobless rate of 21.5 percent, the highest since 1996 and up from 20.9 percent in the previous quarter. It remains the highest rate in the 17-nation eurozone.


Spain is struggling to recover economic growth after crawling out of nearly two years of recession prompted to a large extent by the collapse of a real estate bubble.


Opposition conservatives are tipped to score a landslide win in general elections on Nov. 20 over the ruling Socialists.


The statistics agency said the rise in unemployment was spread across much of the economy, with the services sector particularly hard hit.


Ugly numbers abounded. The number of households with no one working, for instance, rose by nearly 58,000 to 1.43 million.


Elena Valenciano, campaign manager for the Socialists, blamed a global economy she said was slipping back toward recession and said Spain is falling victim to that turmoil, with families unwilling or unable to consume and kickstart the economy.


"Under those circumstances it is very difficult to create jobs," she told Spanish National Radio.


Spain's jobless rate is now nearly triple what it was about four years ago, when the global economic crisis first started to bite.


In the second quarter of this year, the rate had eased a bit -- four-tenths of a point -- as companies hired for the Easter holiday and the summer tourism rush. But that relief has proved short-lived.


The statistics report released Friday said about 2,000 people have stopped looking for work altogether during the quarter. If they had not, the workforce -- people who are working or actively looking for jobs -- would have been bigger and thus the jobless rate a tad higher.It says opposition conservatives are going to score a landslide in elections, really? :blink::rolleyes:

The United Left party (IU) seems to have gotten a small boost of support, they were at 5.1% in July now they are at 7.6 percent. still not that much compared to the main parties.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Left_%28Spain%29
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-10/16/c_131194428.htm


A poll published in the Sunday edition of the newspaper 'El Pais', predicts that if the poll were to be held now, the PP would poll 45.5 percent of the vote while the PSOE trails behind with just 29.7 percent of the prospective vote.

Meanwhile the left wing Izquierda Unida (IU), trails behind in third place with 7.6 percent of the prospective vote with the remaining vote distributed among small groups and Spain's various regional nationalist parties.

Veovis
30th October 2011, 03:37
Spain has been sucked into the same trap as the United States: Bipartidism.

It's like the pre-republic sistema de turnos all over again. So much for political progress.

robbo203
30th October 2011, 06:57
As someone who immigrated to Spain and lives in Andalucia - one of the hardest hit regions of Spain - I have certainly noticed the impact of the economic downturn. Youth unemployment in Andalcuia is about 50% I believe and the overall rate of unemployment here is above the national average. House burglaries have shot up through the roof. Many immigrants are upping stakes and returning to their country of origin. As a self employed gardener this has certainly affected my work prospects since it is mainly immigrants with substantial gardens or land to maintain that have provided me with work. I have not had a new client in at least one and a half years whereas a few years back I might have received perhaps two or three telephone calls a week. How things have changed! It has affected everything - the whole feel of the place - as small shops and bars where people used to meet and socialise close down

One of the most worrying aspects of this all is the huge structural problem of "surplus" housing - given that the long boom years that preceded this downturn was fuelled to a significant extent by the construction industry. This was particularly the case along the coastline which was ravaged by greedy developers, aided and abbetted by corrupt politicans in town halls, resulting in gross over-development. There are reputed to be some 4 million empty homes in Spain and thats not all - every major city you drive through is littered with the carcasses of abandoned shopping malls and office complexes. There is a qrotesque example near where I live - in Granada - which has been partially stripped of its black marble frontage leaving only a hideous grey concrete shell

This massive backlog of unsold houses and apartments will probably put a dampener on economic growth in Spain for years to come. Its is completely possible that houses prices will drop through the floor, making Spain once again a comparatively attractive option for your wealthier, or even not so wealthy, retirees from northern Europe. In the meanwhile, large numbers of Spanish families are suffering desparately and the banks are stepping up on repossesion of properties as people find it more and more difficult to meet their mortgage obligations

GatesofLenin
30th October 2011, 08:47
Capitalist politics. Many choices = all the same crap, smell the same.

citizen of industry
30th October 2011, 10:19
One of the most worrying aspects of this all is the huge structural problem of "surplus" housing

This about describe it?:

http://silencedmajority.blogs.com/.a/6a00d834520b4b69e2015435e927d5970c-pi

m-l Power
30th October 2011, 17:32
A consecuence of the present capitalist crisis joined with a wrong economy politic (in Spain, a few years ago and before this crisis, was a very important burbble with the construction sector). The crisis arrived, the enormus burbble exploted and millions of workers went to the lines of the unemployment.

From one spanish :)

Veovis
31st October 2011, 11:38
Here's an interesting little video going over the lead-up to the current situation in Spain.

PSGp2Hh1jQ4

ETA: I just thought of something: I didn't think Spain had any squirrels...