The chances of becoming emancipated and even starting a family are increasingly low due to the difficult situation of youth in the labor market.
The youth unemployment rate reached a maximum value of 42.4% in the preceding crisis, even reaching 58% among those under 25 years of age. Coinciding with the economic recovery, the rate began to decrease, but the crisis derived from the coronavirus pandemic has aggravated the precariousness of youth employment. According to the INE, the unemployment rate among young people aged 20 to 24 in the first quarter of 2021 was 39.5%, being the second group most affected by unemployment, only below that of those over 55. With almost double the European average rate, Spain is at the forefront of Europe in youth unemployment.
In addition, the increase in the youth unemployment rate has caused the percentage of young people without employment, training, or training to rebound during the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching 17.3% in 2020; that is, 2.4 points more than the previous year.
Job insecurity is a reality that disproportionately affects youth. According to the latest data from the INE, in the last quarter of 2020 more than half (52.1% among men and 55.6% among women) of young people with employment have temporary contracts, a temporality 30 points higher than that of the rest of the population.
COVID-19: an element that deepens pre-existing problems
The productive structure of Spain and the “devastating and disproportionate” effect that the pandemic has generated according to the International Labor Organization, generate a situation where the employability of more than half of the Spanish youth is put at risk. According to the COVID-19 Survey carried out by INJUVE in June 2020, almost 4 out of 10 unemployed young people believe little or nothing is likely to find work in the next year while 66% consider that, after the pandemic, their job opportunities and economic will be worse than those of previous generations.
Among the young employees, 28% were affected by ERTE and more than 16% lost their jobs, while 48% did not experience job changes during the Great Lockdown. Women, who already started from a more precarious work situation, have suffered more ERTE and have lost their jobs more frequently than men.
In addition, according to data from the recent report The generational impact of the coronavirus, based on a survey carried out by the 40dB demographic agency, 60% of young people between 16 and 23 years old have seen their salary reduced as a result of the coronavirus (compared to the 51% of the general population) and 44.7% had their working hours reduced (compared to 36.8% of the general population).
A cheerful youth trying not to lose patience
On this May Day, from the Don Bosco Confederation, as an organization committed to youth, we denounce the alarming situation that young people face in terms of their present and future work and we urge that the precariousness in the labor market be alleviated. job.
Being a qualified reference in the field of youth and Educational Free Time, we are committed to:
- To alleviate the training needs that prevent youth from approaching and integrating into the world of work by promoting courses and seminars from our member entities and the Confederation itself to improve their ability to access work.
- Recognize the skills acquired through volunteering, as founding members of the RECONOCE association together with Scouts-ASDE and Didania. The objective of this entity is to improve youth employability through this recognition.
- To sensitize society and public organizations to the need to improve the employment situation of youth, as a driving force for the future and for the sake of a more just world.
- Innovate. The classic policies and the labor market system developed so far have not given the adequate response to the youth, which continues to be the great forgotten reform after reform.
- Youth participation. Spaces for the empowerment of youth must be created that allow us to develop freely and have our own voice over our situation.
- Work in a network. Only through collaboration will we be able to emerge stronger and develop actions capable of transforming society with solid foundations and a vision of the future.
Around May Day, the social networks of the Don Bosco Confederation will be filled with memes to denounce different realities in reference to the employment situation experienced by the youth of Spain today.
“Our future job is a meme, a complex and even humorous situation that hardly changes over time and has become unsustainable. We youth need a radical change in the labor market in order to rethink our future from solid foundations ”, denounces Manuel Seguín, vice president of the Don Bosco Confederation.
“Our youth continue to demonstrate their involvement and good work every day in the different areas of their lives, especially in volunteer spaces as has been seen during the time of the pandemic, not only in the Youth Centers but in so many young and social initiatives . This same involvement, experience and energy is what they can bring and want to contribute to the workplace ”, says Pedro Hernández, national coordinator of Youth Centers.
The Don Bosco Confederation, together with the Youth Federations and Centers, continues in its commitment to the defense and promotion of childhood and youth, especially those at risk of exclusion, through the youth leadership and educational style of Don Bosco.