The number of young people between the ages of 16 and 24 who neither work nor study, the so-called “ni-nis,” has fallen in Spain from a figure of 660,000 in the second quarter of 2014 to 608,100 this year. And in the Balearics, where there was one of the highest proportions of ni-nis last year, the number is down by six points, the greatest percentage reduction in the country. This performance is being attributed to the buoyancy of the tourism industry and related activities.
Andalusia and Valencia, both of them also with considerable sun-and-beach summer tourism, have seen their ni-ni performance improve this year as well, though not to the same level as the Balearics. Generally, the number of ni-nis tends to be greater in regions with higher levels of overall unemployment, and so regions in the north of Spain, better off in this regard, register the lowest percentages of ni-nis.