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Marcelo Del Pozo / Reuters
People enter a government job centre in Chipiona, on the southern coast of Spain.
There's no doubt that the U.S. unemployment rate of 8.5 percent (as of December) is painful for Americans. But pain can be relative.
Spain reported Friday that its jobless rate jumped to 22.8 percent in the fourth quarter, according to The Associated Press, up from 21.5 percent in the third quarter. That means 5.3 million Spaniards were out of work in the last three months of the year versus 4.9 million in the third quarter.
The Spanish jobless rate is by far the highest in the eurozone, with Ireland a distant second with 14.6 percent unemployed.
It gets worse for Spain. For young Spaniards ages 16 to 24, almost half, or 48.6 percent, are not working, the BBC reported.
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The true U.S. unemployment rate is probably close to the rate in Spain if you count people who's unemployment benefits ran out or simply gave up looking for a job.
Brad, actually unemployment is more like 15%, not 22.8% as in Spain.
Total unemployment and under-employment might be 22.8%.
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/278036/20120107/real-u-s-unemployment-rate-15-6.htm
Further proof that Spain's long time governing conservative party (PP) is headed in the wrong direction.
Is this what we want for our country too? I think not...
Didn;t these people just elect a new socialist govt when their trains were attacked by terrorists? What isn't working?
Actually, Spain just elected a conservative government in November after nearly 8 years of liberal rule. Hopefully they will be able to correct years of liberal-socialist idiocy. Perhaps we'll be smart enough to do the same this fall.
@Skiddy: Didn't 9-11 happen on G.W. Bush's watch? So whats your point?
marlen******* Look at the picture -- where did the fat a**s come from?? Bush?
A job centre with a hammer and sickle on it. That pretty much explains the failure.
Yes, marlen, just a couple of months after 8 years of socialist rule. But we didn't go out and completely change our govt because of it.
You mean people so lazy they didn't even look for a job, just took a 99 week paid vacation on the tax payers. Get a job, losers. Every newspaper and job-website is FULL of jobs. Oh, you were too lazy to learn some skills? GET SOME.
WTC bombed on Clinton's watch- then he did zipp about it which precipitated 9/11
boo hoo hoo looks like the colonial loot has run out...too bad there is no more new world to "discover" better learn to live within your means...i know it's a difficult concept for western societies...
I find the posts amusing. So were all of these replies for entertainment value like reality TV?
9/11 was the result of Al-Qaeda's activity. Who funded and trained Al-Qaeda in guerilla tactics, weapons and explosives, security measures, etc? Our own CIA under Poppy Bush. Our recent (and expensive) wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was the Bush family's latest efforts to sink this country into a hole with more than $1 TRILLION of war spending - WHICH THEY DID NOT PAY FOR AND ENDED UP LOADING UP ON THE NATIONAL CREDIT CARD.
And, despite all of that, it was Obama who finally killed off Osama Bin Laden and several of his second tier commanders. Obama did more in 2 years than Bush and his frat house WHite House (of Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rove) did in 8 years.
So, we are living in the aftermath of a couple of decade's worth of conservative dogma on markets (particularly financial de-regulation). If you are stupid enough to put these corrupt people back into office, do us a favor and stay home on Election Day. We are already re-living Japan's 20-yr nightmare; no need to make it worse.
As for the unemployment numbers, the under-employment rate is about 16% now (down from more than 17%). An improvement but not great (and certainly better than Spain's). However, the under-unemployment rate for those in their 20s is now almost 25% in the U.S. and the unemployment rate is 12% for them. Again, better than Spain's but when you are comparing worse and worst, does anyone win?
@peanutGalleryTheater
That symbol on the wall in the photo is spray painted GRAFFITTI. You know what that is right?
Look into the fraud which has an extreme grip on Spain. Look at the industry captains and their incomes and wealth to see where Spanish PIB is going.
It wont be long untill we catch up with Spain if we havent already on unemployed people.
@Joe: Your right, thanks to the GOP's "just say no" obstructionist policies .
NO thanks to the failure we have in office now. that 15 to 20 million are still out of work for last 3 years. Vote Republican in 12.
The Republican penchant for screwing the poor to profit the rich is responsible for the unemployment numbers...jobs started falling in the previous administration as businesses and markets collapsed. Even the former President said it would take years to recover..but you go ahead and believe whatever it takes you to get through the day Joe.
Im not on handouts and can vote for who ever I want.
Yeah but fools like you keep voting for the wrong people !!! by the way, the very large majority of poor are working americans and the ones that are not working are either the elderly or the handicaps ! You ignorant fool !
sowut, if you believe the Dems are the party of the people, you are nothing more than a propaganda believing sheeple. poodlefan, you aren't even from here, how do you know anything about America, other than the drivel you read from NBC.
At least they are not working for minimum wage.
I do ... work on minimum wage in the U.S.A. Minimum wage just means I eat healthier... i.e., less.
Wouldn't be surprised if we were at Spanish levels of unemployment. Ironically, their welfare state probably allows for more realistic estimates.
In the US students are normally not counted as unemployed. Since two thirds of high school graduates go on to college, I suspect it would be unlikely for US to say half of young people are unemployed. But many young people probably go to college because they can't find a decent job and should be counted as unemployed.
And Barack wants to emulate Europe? Come on people, wise up.
Cite your source. BTW, Spain is only one country in Europe. My source is any published geography textbook.
Spain invested deeply in "green energy" guess what ir did not work and they lost their proverbial butts...gee who does that remind you of???
Letty,
Many places where they are educated people are investing in "green energy", I see why where live they might not, but the fact they built a turbine, does not factor into this.
I live in France and france and germany are the backbone of europe... By the way, we are doing much better than you, americans ! at least, our people are not dying because they cannot afford health care and our mentally ill and veterans are cared for when yours are living on your streets !! Oh and our infrastructure are in great shape when yours is crumbling !! When it comes to freedom, we have way more than you !
C'est vrai, mais les americaines ne voulent pas faire face aux faits, malheuresement.
Again, posts from fools in reality-TV land.
Spain is the equivalent in size of the economy and causes of their problems in the EU the way the real estate crash in Florida is to the U.S. economy.
Spain over-invested in real estate and is now upside down on all of that bad residential and commercial real estate mortgage lending. The crash in construction is the reason for their high unemployment and declining GDP. Sound familiar?
Their situation is worsened by the fact that a lot of that money came from foreign lenders who pulled back when the bubble burst. Of course, we should not be so happy since we owe like $1.2 TRILLION to China and it was the low rates afforded by China buying our Treasuries that permitted the excessively low mortgage rates to create the real estate bubble in the U.S. At least before the whole house of creative mortgages, leveraged equity, securitization and credit default swap nonsense collapsed because people finally realized there was no real money backing up all of that paper and no one bothered to record who owed what to whom because none of it was traded on exchanges but were deals done in smoky back rooms by the banksters.
Can MSNBC post something on IRELAND? The poster child for austerity. And, real estate bubbles and financial shenanigans.
When you look at them, it is like the U.S. looking in a distorted mirror. They (along with Great Britain's Canary Wharf) are smaller but they are ANOTHER great example of what happens when market dogma takes over common sense.
There are so many examples thanks to the financial crisis of 2008. Historians and economists will be busy for the rest of their natural lives examining them.
But, hey, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, Denmark and other democratic socialist countries are doing fine: no deficits, reasonable debt levels (both at the national level and consumer level), stable economies with lower unemployment and benefits of low-cost education and universal healthcare, etc.
These things never seem to be reported enough. I wonder why. Could it be that American corporate media is SLANTED?
Sixteen year olds are counted? Are they counted here as well? How about all high schoolers? Are they part of the mix?
I wonder what percentage of 16 and 17 year olds are working here in the US.
Not as many since Obama became President and the hiking of the minimum wages in various states has cut the number of jobs for teens by 20 30 percent.
Dan,
The last time they voted to raise the minimum wage was in 2007, at that time Obama was not even the candidate for president. He did not become presitend until 2009 a few months before the law passed in 2007 took effect.
Facts my boy, deal with facts, and leave your favorites out of it.
Dan, when did Limbaugh tell you Obama raised the minimum wage?
Good Lord Dan, are you really going to parrot that tired GOP talking point?
Unemployment for teens went up because of the Bush recession, not the minimum wage hike (also done by Bush by the way). Several states like California were already at or above 7.25/hr before the hike, and those states also saw similar increases in teen unemployment rates. Quit spouting discredited junk economics.
This article is misleading. I spent the last semester studying abroad in Southern Spain, and I can assure you the job situation isn't as bad as these statistics make it out to be.
The statistics are true. Most young people don't have a job. But for a young person in Spain to not have a job, isn't as big of a deal as a young person not having a job in the States. It's a different culture over in Spain. Families are very close to each other, and most children don't leave their parents' house until they're in their early 30's or get married. Being young and not having a job is normal in Spain. This article makes it sound like young Spaniards are dying of starvation over it. Which is simply not the case.
Jersey-
Please take your thoughtful, intelligent contributions elsewhere! They do not make for good sensational story-telling. Oooooh, I hate facts and other bad stuff.
Yes, normal for Socialists.
If you responders would look at the photograph.. the er... hind-end view of the people going into Andulez de Empleo (not sure I spelled that right... think it means going into an employment office) ...
... they really do look well-fed.
Ah yes..., the finer points of European socialism... Can't wait to get there!
What happens to a society that embraces communism/socialism? As in most other countries that do so they end up with most unemployed or relying on the government - nothing new here. Like Obama here, they got their Socialist/Communist government takeover too with similar results.
Dan,
Speaking of socialism and government control. Why don't you see if you can't get into some courses at your local government controlled school, it couldn't hurt.
If you would take a "real" poll in the USA I bet you would find that over half of our own people aged 16-24 years old are unemployed. Our economy is almost as bad as Spain's.
That is the age group educated most recently. I wonder if there is a cause/effect problem here? Could, perish the thought, have they been using their cell phones in class?
And let me take a WAG here...the 1% in Spain are even richer now than they have been in the past 40 years...
No pattern here....
Almost all older Americans who have been laid off ae still unemployed. What's your point? Spain is the least of my worries.
I shouldn't say this, but they don't look as if they are losing weight in that picture. So, if the editors catch my comment I suppose I will be deleted. Still, I have to agree with Bill (#12.0")
The US should open its borders to unemployed Spaniards! We need more immigrant laborers to do jobs American citizens won't do! After all immigration is what made America great and illegals aren't coming here fast enough!