Youth employment

I was reading the information coming out of Davos and was some what staggered by the levels of young person unemployment in Spain.

The following figures have been announced

As Spain's unemployment figure rose above 5 million last week, the new government of Mariano Rajoy called on Brussels to ease the country's deficit targets. Its 51.4% youth unemployment level means that for the first time in a modern European country the majority of young people are out of work. In Greece the figure is 46.6% and in Portugal it is 30.7%.

In November youth unemployment in Britain passed 1 million for the first time in 15 years, equivalent to 22% of those aged 16 to 24.

I can uncerstand the UK where the youth have access to the benefit system, but is that the case in Spain.

What is going on in Spain that so many youngsters are unemployed?

Would be interesting to hear from members o EoS as too your experiences and solutions because I suspect the 'leaders' of Europe have no idea what to do about it except through money at it -- almost forgot they don't have any.

David

There was an article in the DT on Friday about it. It's terribly bleak I'm afraid. My wife teaches school leavers accountancy, pay roll, IT, English etc Every year they're arriving to start courses increasingly despondent.  

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/9044897/Spains-lost-generation-youth-unemployment-surges-above-50-per-cent.html

Scout, I am hoping that many of the youngsters reliase a degree in real subjects will be worthwhile - Maths, science and IT are good foundations but in recent times have felt that folks in the UK and Spain dont get it. Since gradulating from Oxford in 68. I have visited on an annual basis from 1980 to help future grads into the financial services industry(s) and have been disappointed at the numbers of Euopeans taking the opportunities the University and Goldman Sachs offered.

It was the same when one daughter went to Cambridge and the other to Imperial London. Where are the local students. I know the Sun is a great draw in the Summers but dont see the Euopean students at the various Summer schools.

I used to be concerned that the youth of Europe were as least interested in academic education as my fellow Australians - I feer this is true in the UK and Spain and these countries will only but slide down the places to be in the years to come.

For me I'm about to return to Australiafrom Dubai and will sail my boat to Perth starting early March. We are currently advertising for crew members (6 required) no one from Europe have applied despite we are offering a daily allowance and flights back home.

If there is anyone out there that would like to crew a Moody 64 from Dubai to Perth WA March onwards and has experience of a sea passage them give me a PM. We pay goog wages and expenses.

David

David

I don't think the problem is necessarily that Spaniards value education any less these days, indeed as Ignacio Escolar pointed out in the article, this is the best educated generation in Spain's history, it's that there are precious few positions for them. We have a friend who studied architecture for the best part of a decade that is now working in a car parts factory in Girona. He worked for several years as an architect, like me has 3 children to support, and then the property bubble burst and he was simply surplus to requirements. He used up his 2 years of paro firing off letters here there and everywhere, had very few interviews and had to set his sights lower. He's now all but given up hope of returning to architecture and is looking to completely retrain, part-time, in his forties. 

I heard on es.radio that PP were conceding that we could expect the unemployment rate to rise another 3% over the next 2 years, and that a decade of stagnation (no growth / low growth) would probably follow as austerity really kicks in. I think I prefer the truth to the "green shoots" of Zapatero but it is fairly depressing stuff.

I think I told you once before in an email that I was very much considering a move to Oz at one point myself, my wife could get the points required for entry and I have a friend who's father owns a factory and could quite possibly sponsor me. It's still a seed of an idea in my head - my boys are only 3, 6 and 8 at the moment so I mean they're nowhere near the point that they have to start worrying about jobs, but as a parent you have to wonder what the future will be like here for them.

Dubai must have been a tremendous experience? I have a friend working there at the moment that sent me 2 photos from the cricket on Thursday (it was free entry wasn´t it?) one was of him and Geoff Boycott, the other was of a sign at the ground "Dress code is very simple - just keep your clothes on". Haha great.

Funnily enough I might just know a guy who'd be interested in crewing your boat. I lived on a kibbutz with him in Israel years and years ago and he's since gone on to do his skippers exams and is always posting photos from New Zealand / Canada / Sth Africa. I've no idea what he's doing right at this moment but its no problem to drop him a line and if he's available he could fax you his CV (or whatever the boating equivalent is!)