A youth unemployment rate of more than 20% and a percentage of young people living with their parents of more than 47%. This is the scenario projected by Ayuda en Acción for the end of this decade in the latest prospective study on employment and youth in Spain. “Currently finding employment for youth is not a guarantee of escaping poverty or having access to basic goods such as housing,” the organization warns.
The forecast is that the unemployment rate for the group between 15 and 29 years of age will fall in the coming years from the current 27%, although it will still stand at 20.3% in 2030. And paradoxically, this drop in youth unemployment does not It will translate into an improvement in access to housing, since the percentage of young people between 25 and 34 years of age who live with their parents will rise to 47.5% at the end of this decade, from the current 46.8%. The precariousness of youth employment, which supports a longer period of time than that of society as a whole, added to inflation and the constant increase in housing prices, is making it difficult for young people to emancipate in Spain, according to the study.
“Despite the economic recovery, the percentage of young people who live with their fathers and/or mothers has increased in recent years. This shows, on the one hand, the precarious and difficult situation faced by the new generations and, on the other , the difficulties for a part of the population, usually the most vulnerable, to be able to develop their life projects and futures as they wish”, pointed out the director of Ayuda en Acción, Fernando Mudarra.
The study confirms that young Spaniards leave home later than their European neighbours. Specifically, youth emancipation in Spain occurs almost three and a half years after that in the European Union as a whole: at 29.8 years, compared to 26.5 years on average in the EU. Given these figures, the researchers state that “although job placement conditions income and therefore the possibilities of emancipation for young people, the data show that the economic recovery has not made it possible to reduce the percentage of young people who live with their parents, who otherwise fact has increased in recent years, despite this recovery”.
“During the stage of economic recovery, the emancipation possibilities of youth have not improved despite having a better educational level and having increased their access to employment,” they insist. The forecasts of the panel of experts suggest that the problem of late youth emancipation will remain stagnant during the next decade, since “there are specific problems in the field of housing that must be solved, improving employment is not enough,” they conclude.
In this sense, the study points to several factors, including the increase in housing costs and “specific problems” in this area that “would require a response”, in the sense of improving the quality of housing for young people and reducing the burden it entails on young salary. However, the organization considers, in the projection of the desirable scenario, that “an improvement is possible”.
To this end, it makes several recommendations. In the workplace, it is committed to creating stable employment, “but not necessarily through an indefinite contract in the same company,” he points out, but rather evolving towards more “respectful, participatory and horizontal” organization models, improving work-life balance and making the birth rate with professional development, with an “income support system” and expanding free early childhood education to the first cycle from 0 to 3 years. He also recommends avoiding “excessive working hours” and reducing the working day, among other things.
In the educational field, it is committed to continuing to reduce the school dropout rate to half its current value (above 13%) to leave it at the end of the decade below the current European average (9.7%). The forecasts of the panelists suggest that the percentage of young people with a high level of education will increase in the coming years, so they recommend directing professional choice towards occupations that are most in demand, adapting the educational offer to the needs of the labor market “in a balanced way”. and promoting training in digital and complementary skills.
With respect to housing, experts say that access problems have “a structural nature that goes beyond economic cycles.” For this reason, they ask to move towards “long-term strategic solutions” that must be based on a great pact between political actors and social agents. Among other measures, they recommend increasing the supply of empty flats for rent, as well as rehabilitation projects, new constructions and increasing the public housing stock for rent.
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