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View All NewsSpain — Professional training relegated to second place
01 September 2009
According to the National Council for Economic and Social Affairs (CES), Spain spends 1.4% of her gross domestic product on unemployment benefits and early retirement payments compared to only 0.6% on professional training for the unemployed, Expansion reports.
Spain has the highest unemployment rate in the European Union (EU). There are more than 4 million people out of work and at 18.1% Spanish unemployment has reached double the average of the EU. The government has just allocated an extra 17 billion Euro to the National Employment Service (INEM) in order to cope with the unprecedented level of unemployment benefit payments.
The real problem of Spain is that the construction industry, which used to be the main generator of employment, has collapsed and is likely not to recover for many years. 40% of job seekers who are registered with INEM have low or very low changes of ever finding work again.
According to statistics published by the Association of Large Temporary Agencies (Agett) and the Autonomous University of Madrid (Ceprede), only 628,000 job seekers receive any form of professional training. In a statement Agett says "in less than three years the percentage of unemployed people who receive professional training has fallen by 7 percentage points."