Youth Unemployment and Social Exclusion in Spain

Abstract

The definitions of unemployment vary according to the different socio-political contexts, therefore, unemployment rates are not easily comparable. The wide extent of unemployment has generated considerable interest in measuring it, and unemployment statistics have become a central piece in the game of politics. It should be remembered that national unemployment compatibilities are not neutral instruments, but the result of a social process of data production. In Spain, there are two major official sources of data in this regard: the Employment Statistics, published monthly by the Instituto Nacional de Empleo (National Employment Institute, INEM), and the Encuesta de Poblacion Activa (Active Population Survey, EPA), published quarterly by the Instituto Nacional de Estadistica (National Institute of Statistics, INE). These two sources use different definitions of unemployment which, furthermore, have changed over time, thus making a reading of the data and an understanding of the phenomenon more difficult.