The unemployment rate among people under the age of 25 fell by nearly 10% and long-term unemployment, by a little more than 17%

Youth unemployment fell last year. According to data from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) prepared by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), the number of unemployed young people under the age of 25 fell in 2018 by 55,300 people (9.9%). This means that the youth unemployment rate fell to 33.5%, or in other words, 4 percentage points lower than the previous year, when it stood at 37.4%. As a result, at the end of last year, the number of unemployed youths totalled 502,900.

In general terms, of the 3.3 million unemployed people in Spain at the end of 2018, slightly more than 15% were under 25 years of age. By age group, unemployment among young people aged 20 to 24 fell by 35,200 people (8.4% compared to 2017) and among youths aged 16 to 19, it fell by 20,000 people (14.3%).

Of these just over three million unemployed people, about 40% were long term unemployed, i.e. they had been out of work for more than a year. A figure that also decreased by more than 281,000 people and now stands at 1,331,200 (which is just over a 17% drop in one year), the lowest level since the third quarter of 2009.

The growth of the working population

In 2018, the number of workers under the age of 25 increased by 0.6% when compared to 2017. That is to say, over the past year, the number of young workers under 25 increased by 9,900 people.

On the other hand, while it is true that more than half of the jobs generated in 2018 went to workers over the age of 50 (actually 54.7%), young people aged 20 to 24 found a total of 47,500 jobs, and those aged 16 to 19, 17,600 jobs.