Spain chained with over a million long-term unemployed for 13 years

Spain currently has 1.5 million long-term unemployed (underemployed for more than a year), thus leading to a chain of 13 years with over a million people in this position. According to a study by Asemplo, the majority are women, people over the age of 55 and people of low educational level.

Despite the fact that the labor market has experienced two great moments of job creation in the past 13 years (the period 2014-2019 after the financial crisis and the period 2021-2022 after the pandemic), a group of unemployed for a long time Continuing to over one lakh people. According to Asemplo, this shows the difficulties these people are facing in finding jobs.

The longer a person remains unemployed, the more difficult it is for him to return to work. In the first quarter of this year, an unemployed person who had been unemployed for less than a year was nearly three times more likely to find a job than a person who was unemployed for a long time.

According to Asemplo, for workers who have been unemployed for more than a year, Temporary contracts “act as a springboard towards employment”By reducing the risks faced by employers when they hire someone who has been out of work for so long.”

Ability to leave unemployment is inversely proportional to age, making older people more likely to remain unemployed for more than twelve consecutive months. In fact, three out of four unemployed women and two out of three unemployed men over the age of 55 have been in this position for more than a year.

Asemplo warns in this study that women have more problems to quit unemployment that man, since 50% of unemployed women have been unemployed for more than a year as compared to 44% of men. Employers at private employment agencies say, “The gender gap in this sector is considered after age 40, which coincides with the time of motherhood.”

Another relevant factor that determines the employability of the unemployed is their educational level. a) yes, The more education you have, the less likely you are to remain unemployed for more than a year., In fact, 52% of the unemployed who have completed compulsory education have been in this position for more than a year, while 43% have a university degree.

“It highlights the importance of training throughout working life, something essential for older people, which allows them to update their skills to the new demands of the market, which changes at great speed as a result of the digital transformation process. Is.” study.

Greeks, Italians and Portuguese are worse

However, the Spanish position in relation to unemployment for a long time is not an anomaly in the European context, according to Asempleo.

Thus, although Spain has the highest unemployment rate in the European Union (13.3% at the end of 2021), it is not the Spanish unemployed who remain in this position the longest.

According to Eurostat data, 42.8% of Spanish between the ages of 15 and 74 were unemployed for more than a year, compared to 68% of Slovaks, 65% of Greeks, 61% of Italians, or 48%. of the Portuguese. On the opposite side are Denmark and the Netherlands.Where hardly one out of every five unemployed has been in this situation for more than a year.

Two out of three get profit

In Spain, once unemployment benefits are exhausted, the long-term unemployed can opt for an unemployment subsidy if they have family responsibilities or, if not, for active entry income.

As of March 2022, Asempleo estimates that nearly two in three people who were unemployed for more than a year received some form of benefit. However, it does specify that the coverage rate of the long-term unemployed is skewed on a basis of each autonomous community.

In general, Asemplo points out that there is a positive correlation between the number of unemployed people who have been unemployed for more than a year and the percentage of those who receive benefits.

a) yes, Unemployed Canarians, Manchegos and Valencians are the ones who have been unemployed the longest, with Basque, and those who once reaped the most, find themselves in this situation. At the other end are Navarra, Aragon, La Rioja and the Balearic Islands.