The health crisis has also had negative effects on Spanish youth. The number of young people under 30 who neither study nor work, the so-called ‘ninis’, has experienced an upward trend, especially in April. That month, in full confinement, it increased by 20.7% compared to the same period of 2019 and in July it rose again by 17%, according to data from the Youth Guarantee program released by Action Against Hunger on the occasion of International Youth Day .
The head of the organization’s employability programs, Ana Alarcón, explained in a press conference that young people face an uncertain job future due to COVID-19: precarious jobs, low wages, fewer working hours, more temporary files and permanent layoffs. “Some of those who are now unemployed may become long-term unemployed. Job insecurity has become a structural issue in our work system,” he indicated.
The situation is even tougher, according to the entity, between young people between 25 and 35 years old because they face a new crisis after 2008. The latest data from the Youth Guarantee -which measures young people under 30 years of age who neither study nor work, the so-called NEETs- show that the number of registrations has grown by 17% compared to 2019. “Their future work and their projects of life, creating a family or buying a house, they once again stagnate with the coronavirus crisis, “said the employment expert.
These data also do not improve among those under 25, recent graduates. In the second quarter of 2020 the unemployment rate reached almost 40%, while in the first quarter it stood at 33% according to the Labor Force Survey (EPA). “This rise of 7 points reflects the existing uncertainty in the labor market when it comes to betting on young talent and the lack of opportunities they face,” said Alarcón.
In this sense, the employment expert added that “in the youth entrepreneurship programs of Action Against Hunger the innovative ideas and initiatives proposed by young people and this suggests that a lot of talent and innovation are lost in Spanish companies by not providing more job options “.
In this context, the situation for young women is even worse. “They suffer greater job insecurity and poverty, which places them in a worse place to face a new period of crisis as well as some of the most affected sectors, such as commerce, education, fashion, tourism and hospitality, which are highly feminized.”
According to Action Against Hunger, the gender gap is also manifested in youth entrepreneurship. “The percentage of women without higher education who undertake is much lower than that of men”, has detailed Alarcón.
Another consequence of the pandemic is the interest of young people in starting their own business. In the opinion of Ana Alarcón, “this gives us an idea of how the expectations of employed persons are diminishing in a labor market reduced by the crisis and opens up interest in the possibilities of self-employment and looking for local options”, she declared Alarcon.
In his opinion, the data does not mean, however, that youth entrepreneurship will grow significantly. “Undertaking is a long road and it may be that the socioeconomic circumstances of these young people force them to put their entrepreneurial dream aside to cover their basic needs “, the expert has said.
Lucía Cíller, a young architect from Murcia, recounted her personal experience at the press conference that led her to opt for self-employment after struggling to dedicate herself to her profession, something that she did not achieve. Thus, he concluded that the best option was to undertake: “Tired of having a beautiful job with a lot of responsibility, but poorly paid, I changed course and returned to Murcia to have a calmer life and there to start my own lighting design business and Luzmixtura handmade lamps”.
This young entrepreneur explained how “COVID has come to aggravate a work situation that was already precarious in Spain for young people.” Your thinking is perhaps the key right now: “Deciding where to go and what people and society need instead of waiting for the ‘perfect job’ to knock on your door is the best way out for me.”
Another case is that of Roberto Mazo, a 22-year-old graduate in Physics, who was doing an internship in the United Kingdom before the arrival of the coronavirus. When the state of alarm was established in Spain, he decided to return and look for work in Madrid. But he found nothing and bet on being an entrepreneur: “I decided to start my own company, a mobile app, but the difficulties that exist are great obstacles for young people. For that reason, I had to go into exile again to work “, has explained.
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