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After the 2008 financial crisis, many Spaniards lost their jobs and the Mediterranean country was left with one of the highest unemployment rates in the European Union. In recent years, at least until the economic crisis provoked by the COVID-19, everything pointed at a slow but sure recovery of the job market in Spain, although the unemployment rate among the younger age groups remained still quite high. In fact, over ** percent of those aged 16-19 did not have a job between 2020 and 2022. This figure goes down to approximately **** percent in ages 20-24 and 15.58 for 25 to 29-year-olds. In stark contrast, youth unemployment figures in the European Union reached **** percent in June 2024. The unemployed rate for under 25s was the highest in Spain, followed by Greece and Italy, all the three Mediterranean countries featuring rates of over ** percent in the younger workforce groups.

An ongoing and tough recovery

Spanish unemployment rate skyrocketed in 2008, jumping from * percent in the first quarter that year up to percent during the same quarter a year after. The Spanish unemployment crisis hit hardest in 2013, when a record high of ** percent of the population did not have a job. In numbers, that share translates into 6.3 million professionals in 2013 left out of the workforce. The job market initiated a recovery thereafter, making moderate and laborious progress and reducing the numbers to approximately *** million unemployed workers in the first quarter of 2023. The impact of the coronavirus on the Spanish economy caused the unemployment rate to surge again throughout 2020, but still remained far from the figures reached after the financial crisis.

The unemployment situation in the European Union

Spain was the European country with the highest unemployment rate in August 2023, with **** percent of the labor force out of work. The unemployment rate in Greece, in second place, stood at a rate of **** percent in that timeframe, which is still considerably higher than that of the rest of the European Union.