Spain has reduced the proportion of young people who neither study nor work to a historic low

The improvement of the Spanish labor market is not only reflected in a record number of employees and the lowest number of unemployed in 16 years. Little by little, sectors with greater added value are gaining strength, temporary employment has declined since the approval of the labor reform and women have never had such a large share of employment. Along the same lines, another record that is improving year after year is the proportion of young people who neither study nor work. According to data released by Eurostat, in 2023 they were 12.3% of people aged 15 to 29. This is a historical minimum, four tenths lower than the previous year and which also improves on the figures of the real estate bubble. This record has fallen by more than ten percent in the last decade.

The Spanish figure (12.3%) is somewhat higher than the EU average (11.2%), which has fallen by five tenths compared to 2022. Both changes peaked at the worst moment of the Great Recession, when Spain reported 22.5% and the average twenty-seven reported 16.1%. Since then they have been falling in parallel, with the Spanish figure being the strongest due to the greater margin for improvement. The only exception was 2020, the year of the pandemic.

The historical series of Spanish labor data hides some of its best figures in a brick bubble. This is the case of the unemployment rate, which registered a minimum of 7.93% in the second quarter of 2007, while in the same period of 2023 it was 11.67%. The same does not happen with the proportion of young people who neither study nor work: in 2007 they were 12.8%, five tenths more than now. Then the European average was somewhat higher than the Spanish average, the opposite of what happens now.

Despite improvements in unemployment in recent years, Spain is the EU country with the highest overall unemployment rate (twice the Community average, 6%) and youth unemployment (26.5% among people under 25, while the average is 14.4%). But it does not mark the worst record in the proportion of young people who neither study nor work: they are led by Romania (19.3%), Italy (16.1%), Greece (16%), Bulgaria (13.8%), Cyprus (13.8%) and Lithuania (13.5%). The Spanish record (12.3%) ties with France, something that has not happened since 2007. Since then the northern neighbour has always reported better numbers than Spain. The best data in the EU are those of Malta (7.5%), Sweden (5.7%) and the Netherlands (4.8%).

Adrià Junyent, federal secretary of the Youth of CC OO, believes these figures are proof that “when there is work, young people work.” “If people can do it they don’t choose not to do it. In this sense there is a distorted vision of youth,” says Junyent. “These figures are the clear result of a well-done labor reform, which has benefited companies and workers. And that includes young people,” says Eduardo Magaldi, spokesman for the UGT youth organization (RUGE).

Along these lines, members of the UGT union highlight that the decline in temporary employment has particularly benefited workers under 30: “They were the ones who suffered the highest turnover. It is still the same, but it has improved considerably.” This is corroborated by INE data: of employees aged 16 to 29, today 33.7% have a temporary contract, compared to 55.6% before the approval of the labor reform. This change has occurred in the global working population, from 25.6% to 15.7%.

The Ministry of Labor believes that another major reason for achieving this historic low is Ninnis There is the regulation of training contracts. “This is a very positive development that underlines the strength of the labour market, which is more attractive thanks to the labour reform. It offers stability prospects to young people, who can enjoy indefinite contracts without having to go through consecutive indefinite contracts,” Díaz’s department tells this newspaper. He also considers investments in active employment policies important: “More than 600 million euros were allocated to this group in each of the two regional conferences in 2021 and 2022. To these amounts are added 3.5 billion euros from the European Social Fund. “We are far exceeding the requirements set by the EU for youth employment (almost twice what is needed).

blame it Nini

Juniente addresses one of the recurring themes in this debate: the systematic blame that these young people have suffered for the situation in which they find themselves, with the humiliating burden that always remains “Ninisince the real estate bubble burst. “There was Ninnis At that time because there were no jobs and because of cuts in education. There was no plan to protect those who left their studies to go to work. And in that context, the authority focused the responsibility, which is the system, on young people individually. They tried to blame an endemic evil on them. It is outrageous that you cannot find work and they blame you,” says the CC OO union member.

The Eurostat series perfectly illustrates the phenomenon of young masons becoming unemployed: the proportion of men aged 15 to 29 who were neither studying nor working rose from 9.9% in 2007 to 20.4% in 2009. “In times of crisis the first jobs to be lost are those of young people, who are the cheapest for companies to lay off. This was seen again during the coronavirus crisis,” recalls Magaldi.

There were so many in 2023 Ninnis Men and women in Spain, 12.3%. It should be noted that compared to 2022, the change that improves the situation of women is 13.3%. The situation of men has worsened slightly, with an increase of a tenth compared to the previous year. Junyent believes that this evolution may be related to the better academic performance of women, as indicated by year-by-year data from the Ministry of Education.

Similarly, experts are also pointing out that the overall rate has improved Ninnis This is also linked to the decline in early school leaving in Spain, the percentage of young people aged 18 to 24 who have a maximum ESO degree and are not studying. In 2008 it reached 31.7%, when across the EU it was 14%. In Spain in 2023 it will be 13.6%, almost four points higher than the Community average.

Different situations

“The essential characteristic that defines the category Nini “What it has is its marked diversity,” said María José Gómez Torres, a study co-author Ninnis and professor at the Department of Didactics and Educational Organization of the University of Seville. “Under this label are different groups of young people who have the usual situation of neither studying nor working at the time of the demographic survey: those who neither wish to continue studying, nor do they wish to work; those who are actively seeking employment after completing their studies; those who must dedicate themselves to the care of their dependent family members…”

“People who belong to the category Nini “They suffer losses of socio-professional opportunities, limitations in access to social services and benefits, and physical and mental health problems, which can lead to low self-esteem, insecurity, dissatisfaction, dependency and incidences of juvenile delinquency,” said Gómez Torres, an opinion which was also shared by Ana Cristina Ruiz, professor in the Department of Social Psychology, Social Work and Social Services at the University of Malaga and author of the doctoral thesis. NEET: Youth and social exclusion (2019): “They are in a vulnerable situation due to the lack of two main characteristics that are part of the socialization process of individuals: training through the educational system or having a job within the labor market.”

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