Spain is no longer a labor oasis

Spain is no longer a labor oasis

Spain loses its labor force. According to the latest data, more people are leaving this country than arriving in search of work.

It is expected that about 580 000 people would leave Spain until the end of 2011. At the same time about 450 000 people would arrive to work here. These figures are provided in the report of the National Statistical Office of Spain.

Today unemployment in Spain is 22%. The labor market would hardly be stabilized in the near future.

Golden year of labor force inflow in Spain was 2007. Then about 1 million people came to work in this country. However, according to the Mercopress news agency, in 2008 half of them went to work in other countries.

During the past two years labor force inflow in Spain is about 450 000 people annually.

It is worth noting that the majority of people leaving Spain are migrant workers from other states. The number of Spaniards, who left the native country in search of better wages, will not exceed 50 000 in 2011. However, this figure is considerably higher than in 2008, when 34 000 Spaniards went to work abroad.

Most of the labor immigrants in Spain come from such Latin American countries as Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia. The most represented nation in the Spanish labor market is Romanians. According to the official statistics there are 287,225 official Romanian workers in Spain. A large number of labor immigrants arriving in Spain come from Morocco and China.

There are more than 5 million immigrants in Spain. 2.4 million of them came from the EU countries and 2.6 million from other states.

Ilya Kalachev

Date: 30/11/2011