The unemployment rate of Basque youth between 16 and 29 years of age in 2022 was 7.2% lower than that registered among the youth of Spain

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According to data from the PRA (Population Survey in Relation to Activity) prepared quarterly by the Basque Statistics Institute (EUSTAT), the youth unemployment rate in the Basque Country in 2022 closed at 15.0 %.

The unemployment rate indicates the percentage of active people (that is, willing to work) who do not have a job, but are actively looking for one and have carried out some job search process in the last four weeks. It does not include students who are not seeking employment or disabled persons who are unable to work.

After the increase in unemployment in 2020, as a result of the Covid19 pandemic, unemployment fell in 2021 and 2022 and, as also confirmed by the data for the second quarter of 2023, located at 12.3 %, it continues to decline.

However, according to the EPA (Active Population Survey) of the INE (National Institute of Statistics), the unemployment rate of young people in Spain in the second quarter of 2022 was 22.2 %, that is, 7.2 percentage points higher than that registered in Euskadi in the same period.

Comparison of the evolution of the unemployment rate of the population aged 16 to 29 in the Basque Country and Spain (%)

Two aspects must be highlighted: that the Basque Country is the Autonomous Community with the lowest unemployment rate among young people and that both the Basque Country and the Autonomous Communities as a whole reflect a drop in unemployment after the peak reaching due to the Covid19 pandemic. in 2020.

Regarding the employment rate, that is, the percentage of young people aged 16 to 29 with employment compared to the total number of people in the same age group, we note that between 2020 and 2022 the percentage of young people with employment in the Basque Country rose from 37.3 % to 42.3 %. This value would also place the Basque Country above the average for Spain (38.8 %) along with Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and the Community of Madrid as the autonomous communities with the highest employment rates among young people.