Mason Jones (Reporter)
ANDALUCIA is the second worst place to find a job in Europe according to new statistics.
The region comes second only to Ceuta in a poll of the areas with the highest unemployment in Europe.
Some seven Spanish regions made it onto the list of Europe’s ten most unemployed places.
Ceuta, Andalucia, Extremadura and the Canary Islands were the regions with the highest unemployment rates in 2012, according to figures released by the EU’s statistical department, Eurostat.
Melilla, Castile-La Mancha and Murcia also topped the chart with a rate of around 28%.
The rate of unemployed Andalucians has now reached 34.6% followed by Western Macedonia in Greece with 27%.
The figures also reveal that a staggering 48% more people had been without a job for over three years by 2012.
Overall, 25 European regions had an unemployment rate higher than 20.8% which is twice the EU average in 2012.
Meanwhile, many regions situated in the north of Europe scored much lower in the unemployment rankings.
Salzburg, Austria had an unemployment rate of just 2.5% while Germany’s Tubingen, Oberbayern and Trier only have 2.7% of workers unemployed.
It is no doubt high, but I wonder if the 34 percent
unemployed figure is accurate. For example, in Andalucia
many workers claim unemployed benefits and work for cash.
In other words, they work part-time for cash and draw state
Benefits. Additionally, many Spanish businesses encourage this
part-time economy because maintaining a full-time
workforce comes with expensive worker protections.
It mirrors the piece-work, agricultural economy in Spain before
several decades ago.
Declare unilateral independence, go back to the peseta,beef up your tourism (Andalusia has fantastic inland areas as well as coasts) and apply for EU membership as an underdeveloped country, reform labour laws and other regulations holding back investment. Fanciful I know but desperate times require desperate measures.
I think that the age old culture of “manana” has at last caught up, we can all see inefficiency all around, the construction industry is dead so why has it taken over a year for me to get a reply from my local Ayuntiemto architect for a simple “yes” or “no” ? Some incentive to local business to employ young people must be introduced such as government subsidy minimum wages to gain experience for the young unemployed, if you were young and unemployed what would you do ??
While in Andalucia last summer, I heard talk of doing away with the “siesta” and have businesses open longer hours. Would that help? I love all of Spain and want things to be better for this beautiful country and its people.
The first thing they should do is to address the problem of the autonomo payments .which makes it impossible for small businesses to employ anyone legally
Agree with Mary Beker on this … !