Spain leads labor overqualification and suffers the highest rate of structural unemployment in all of Europe. Although these phenomena are not directly related, they are two of the aspects that explain why the quality of the labor market is at the bottom of the continent.
Structural unemployment in Spain is 11%, ahead of Greece with 9.4% and Italy with 9.2%. “A high rate of structural unemployment represents an underutilization of the productive capacity of an economy, as well as the labor exclusion of a large part of society,” says a CaixaBank Research report on the labor market published today. The study service’s proposals to reverse the situation are “greater demand for employment, greater supply of employment and better matching between the two.”
On this last point, the figures show that the process is not taking place correctly. 35.9% of employed people with higher education in Spain “do not work in occupations associated a priori with university degrees compared to 23.5% in the eurozone”, according to the work.
The bank’s research service warns that the situation is especially serious among the immigrant group where “52.2% of foreign workers in our country are overqualified, according to the Eurostat definition, compared to 34.5% in the case of Spanish workers”. The percentages for the eurozone are 36.6% for foreigners and 22.4% for nationals.
CaixaBank Research maintains that to carry out the necessary structural reforms “good institutional quality is necessary, an area in which Spain has room for improvement in several aspects.” Among these, government effectiveness, regulatory quality and control of corruption stand out.
