By Marshall Auerback
Nearly one Spaniard in four is unemployed, according to data released on Friday, as the country’s economic and financial predicament prompted a government minister to talk of a “crisis of enormous proportions”.The data from the National Statistics Institute showed 367,000 people lost their jobs in the first three months of the year. At this pace, Spanish job losses are equivalent to 1 million per month in the United States. That means more than 5.6m Spaniards or 24.4 per cent of the workforce are unemployed, close to a record high set in 1994.
Spain has become the new Greece. Actually, in many respects Spain is now worse than Greece. The Spanish unemployment rate is already so high and unlike Athens, Madrid has made no headway in reducing its public debt levels (whereas the Greeks are close to running a primary fiscal surplus at which point they could leave and turn the problem back on to Brussels). Moreover, Spain has a huge private debt burden that is twice that of Greece.
Although I have warned on these pages before that Spain’s austerity program was leading the country to disaster, my reaction to this economic catastrophe has been one of amazement. Just take a look at this employment data
Spain First Quarter Unemployment: Summary (Table)
2012-04-27 07:00:00.13 GMT
| 1Q Quarterly Yearly |
|
2012 |
Net Change |
QoQ % |
Net |
Change YoY% |
| Both Sexes |
|
|
|
|
|
| Over 16s |
38,493.70 |
-14.5 |
-0.04% |
-18.4 |
-0.05% |
| Active Workforce |
23,072.80 |
-8.4 |
-0.04% |
10.9 |
0.05% |
| Employed |
17,433.20 |
-374.3 |
-2.10% |
-718.5 |
-3.96% |
| Unemployed |
5,639.50 |
365.9 |
6.94% |
729.4 |
14.85% |
| Inactive |
15,420.90 |
-6.1 |
-0.04% |
-29.3 |
-0.19% |
| Activity Rate |
59.94% |
0.00% |
n/a |
0.06% |
n/a |
| Unemployment Rate |
24.44% |
1.59% |
n/a |
3.15% |
n/a |
| 16 to 64 |
30,606.00 |
-52.5 |
-0.17% |
-171.4 |
-0.56% |
| Activity Rate |
74.87% |
0.13% |
n/a |
0.44% |
n/a |
| Unemployment Rate |
24.59% |
1.59% |
n/a |
3.17% |
n/a |
| Employment Rate |
56.47% |
-1.09% |
n/a |
-2.03% |
n/a |
Continue reading →
