Unemployment in Spain

The unemployment rate in Spain has reached staggering numbers. Over 21% of all working age Spanish citizens are jobless. That's one out of every five people. The unemployment rate in Barcelona is slightly lower but the effect can still be seen. If one were to walk away from Las Ramblas and stay away from the expensive tourist boutique areas around the city, the unemployment effect is full blown. The metro is packed with homeless people begging for something to eat and unemployment offices all over the city have seen lines out the door. Protests in Placa Sant Jaume, the administrative center of the city, have erupted with angry unemployed citizens advocating for more jobs and the lack of government intervention in finding the solution. Around the corner from my apartment on Rocafort and Diputacio in Eixample is the Moroccan Consulate and daily there are lines of Moroccan immigrants searching for work. The problem isn't only in Spain though. Journalists have cleverly denoted a group of four European struggling economies as the PIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain). These economies of these four countries are bringing down the value of the Euro as a currency and also inflating the rest of the European Union's economy. President Zapatero's socialist government has vowed to create more jobs and end the corruption of jobless citizens still using tax money to gain benefits such as health insurance. It will be interesting to compare next quarter's statistics when the numbers come out.