EU: 25% Temporary Contracts in Spain in 2009

So…Inquiring minds are reading of the slow, agonizing death of Spain. Consider that Spain’s Birthrate is approximately 1.12. That translates into Spain losing about 52% of their population every 35 years. Unemployment is now another major Spanish issue they must conquer, but they aren’t alone. Is all of Europe in a death dance:

More than a quarter of Spanish workers ad a temporary contract in 2009. In the EU-27 this figure is only higher in Poland (26.5%) and is followed by Portugal (22%). The result was released in the latest Eurostat report on employment in the group of people between 15 and 64 years old. Last year the average percentage of temporary contracts reached 13.5% in the EU-27 and 15.2% in the eurozone. Malta and Italy are ranked at the bottom of the list of employment among women: 37.7% in Malta and 46.4% in Italy, against 51% in Croatia, an EU-27 average of 58.6% and an EU-16 average of 58.3%. Turkey stays well below European levels with just 24.2% of women employed, against 64.5% of men in the country.

Turkey scores higher on the other hand than several European countries regarding the use of part-time (10.6%), surpassing Greece (5.8%), Cyprus (7.4%), Portugal (8.4%), Slovenia (9.5%), but also Croatia (6.9%). The Turks come close to the figures of other Mediterranean countries like Spain (12.6%) and Italy (14.1%), but are still far removed from the 25% of Germany, the UK, Sweden and Denmark and the record 47.7% of the Netherlands. As a whole, the EU-27 employment rate in the age between 15 and 64 has been rising since 2002 (from 62.4% to 65.9% in 2008).

This growth came to a sudden stop in 2009 at 64.6%.

Among the Mediterranean EU countries, Cyprus recorded an employment rate of 69.9%, followed by Slovenia (67.5%), Portugal (66.3%), France (64.2%), Greece (61.2%), Spain (59.8%), Italy (57.5%) and Malta (54.9%). Employment in Croatia reached 56.6%, 44.3% in Turkey. (ANSAmed)

It is heating up in Europe.