Unemployment in Catalonia is down in second quarter and set at 20.95%

The latest Labour Force Survey published this Friday by the National Statistics Institute show that unemployment in Catalonia has fallen by 15,400 people during the second quarter to a rate of 20.95%. The overall totals indicate that 821,600 of the working population in Catalonia are unemployed, 130,700 more than a year ago. Spanish data shows an increase in unemployment in the second quarter, bringing the state total to 5.7 million people without work, 24.6% of the working population. The figures are higher than the historical record reached in 1994 during the last crisis, with nearly a quarter of the working population without employment.

Of the total number of unemployed individuals in Catalonia, there are 478,500 people seeking their first job or have been unemployed for more than a year. Young people are by far the hardest hit demographic when it comes to employment statistics. The rate of unemployment in Catalonia amongst those who are 25 years old or under is 51.59%, reaching 72.91% for those aged between 16-19 years old. Recent graduates are becoming more inclined to leave Catalonia for European countries where there are more opportunities for well qualified individuals and make up the majority of those with Spanish citizenship emigrating from Catalonia.

Esther Sánchez, Secretary for Labour and Industrial Relations of the Catalan Government, acknowledged that the only “positive” data from the Labour Force Survey was the reduction in unemployment in the April to June quarter. She interprets the 15.400 decrease in unemployment as “a bubble of oxygen, but very little oxygen and if we make a rigorous and realistic assessment it can not be a positive trend.”