Youth unemployment in Spain continues to rise strongly and is already close to tripling the OECD average

Youth unemployment continues to rebound significantly in Spain and at the end of last November it reached 40.9% after rising five tenths compared to the previous month. The figure is undoubtedly the highest of the countries that make up the OECD, but also the distance with the rest of the economy that makes up the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is very important. So much that the Spanish figure almost triples the average of the OECD 14.3%

The data published this Wednesday by the body headed by the Mexican à ?? ngel GurrÃa shows this, and allows other observations to be made that only delve into the seriousness of youth unemployment in Spain. For example, if the average rate of the seven main powers of the OECD is observed, the difference is even greater since the figure in that case is 12.2%. This is, that Spain bears even worse the comparison with the big economies.

The only one timidly approaching Spain is Italy, which suffers from similar structural problems, and where the youth unemployment figure is 29.5%. Somewhat higher, 33%, is the last known figure of Greece and relative to the month of September. And then they are Colombia, Lithuania, Chile or Portugal, all of them smaller economies and with figures above or close to 25%. And then there is Sweden, which already at the end of 2019 had a moderately high figure of almost 20% but which in recent months has grown strongly to 24%.

Also the highest unemployment rate

In total terms, Spain is also the economy with the highest unemployment rate although in this case, it is true, the differences are not so spectacular with respect to the rest. In any case, at the end of November, 16.4% in Spain was higher than 15% in Colombia or 10% in Lithuania. Greece, again with outdated data, closed September at 15%.

And to all this, in addition, it must be added that many workers are in a situation of employment regulation file (ERTE) and that, therefore, they are not listed as unemployed. But the reality is that, as these files are withdrawn, a good part of them will swell the unemployment lists.

For this reason, many forecasts, such as that of the Bank of Spain, indicate that in 2021 there will be a rebound in unemployment, and that recovery from pre-crisis levels is still a long way off.

Sordo (CCOO) hopes that the extension of the ERTE will be “shelved” next week

The general secretary of CCOO, Unai Sordo, trusts that next week the ERTE renewal can be “shelved” until the end of May, when the state of alarm ends, and has warned that the unions will not relax its position on the matter, and believes that the Executive is not willing to do so either.

In an interview with Onda Vasca, collected by Europa Press, Sordo hopes that next week the issue of the ERTE renovation will be “shelved” because “it is well oriented” and it would be a scheme “quite similar” to the currently existing. “I already anticipate that the unions, and I don’t think the Government either, are working to make employment commitments more flexible than they already are,” he indicated.