This week the CCOO Mallorca union warned of rising youth unemployment on the island and reported that the number of unemployed people under the age of 35 now exceeds that of those over 55. It was also reported that the Balearics are once again at the bottom of the ranking in terms of shops open during the month of December, while the island’s hairdressers are warning that salons will have to stop opening on Saturdays if they can’t solve the staffing problem.
Now, unlike the UK and other northern European countries, Spain is by no means a welfare state. The government certainly does not hand out cash, housing and other benefits on the scale of the UK, for example. So why are so many young people out of work?
Granted Mallorca is a bit of a Disneyland where the social divide between the wealthy, very wealthy in many cases, and those on average incomes, which are far lower than northern Europe, is huge compared to the mainland. But still, there has to be a limit to the number of young people who have the luxury of living on daddy’s money. More and more families are struggling to make ends meet.
Any extra family income, bread on the table, would surely be welcome. Fine, it may be a little tough finding a job during the winter, but what about when the tourist season is in full flow? And now other sectors are crying out for staff. Something does not add up.