Not even having a job, the great fear of young people when they finish their studies, is enough to achieve what is supposed to be the great desire of this population group: to become emancipated and start an independent life. It is neither now nor will it be in the next seven years. On the contrary, the age of emancipation will continue to be delayed even more. The fundamental reason is the enormous difficulty they have in accessing a home, whether rented or owned.
This is the main conclusion of the prospective study on youth and employment in Spain 2030 prepared by the NGO Ayuda en Acción, made public yesterday. In addition, it reveals that this scenario will not be the same (negative) in all territories. There are communities, such as Andalucía, Canarias and Extremadura in which young people will find it more difficult to become independent due to the lower level of employment.
Work is a pillar for emancipation, a job that is beginning to improve, but less in the youth population, which continues to suffer a higher rate of temporary employment, more part-time contracts and lower salaries. While temporary employment has decreased 3.6 points in the population aged 20-64 since 2008, in people aged 16 to 24 it grew by 9.9 points and in those aged 25-34 the increase was 3 points during the past decade, points out this work.
This precariousness, added to inflation and the constant increase in housing prices, hinders youth emancipation in Spain, already more than 3 years above the EU as a whole (30 years on average in Spain and 26 in the rest of Europe). “Despite the economic recovery, the percentage of young people living with their parents has increased in recent years. This shows, on the one hand, the precarious and difficult situation faced by the new generations and, on the other, the difficulties for a part of the population, usually the most vulnerable, to develop their life projects and futures as they wish”. says the director of Ayuda en Acción, Fernando Mudarra.
And in 2030? The experts who have collaborated on this report believe that the youth unemployment rate (16-29 years) could reach 20%, a value that would be approximately half that existing at the time of the last economic crisis. Despite this, studies suggest that the percentage of young people living with their parents will increase.
To do? The key is to generate policies that help increase the proportion of independent youth, reduce the average age of emancipation, reduce the burden of the cost of housing on young families, improve the public housing stock and a political framework for solve the structural problem in terms of housing, they point out from Ayuda en Acción.
And, of course, continue working to reduce school dropout (it is expected that Spain will achieve similar values to the EU by 2030) and increase the educational level of young people. "Education is a key lever to break the cycle of poverty and access employment, there is a direct relationship between unemployment and impoverishment with the levels of study," says Verónica de la Cruz, Head of Employment at Ayuda en Acción. A piece of information: the unemployment rate in 2021 in the population between 25 and 29 years old was 32.6% for a low educational level and 15.7% for a high educational level.
