Source: Eurostat
Spain’s unemployment rate hit a record 27.2% in March, leaving some 6 million Spaniards without work — more than the entire population of Denmark. As the chart shows, the country has long had a structural problem with high levels of joblessness, though those had declined from the mid-1990s as the country started to modernize its economy. The jobless rate hit a low of 7.9% in mid-2007, but has risen relentlessly since the collapse in 2008 of Spain’s labor-intensive property boom.
The country’s unemployment rate now matches that of Greece, which is in the grips of a full-blown depression. In the past year, the government has imposed drastic spending cuts and tax increases, trying to bring a huge budget deficit under control, in line with the euro zone’s policy of fighting its debt crisis with austerity. With unemployment so high and seemingly recalcitrant, especially among the young, Spain now stands at the forefront of the European debate about whether austerity measures should be abandoned until growth is restored.
