Unemployment in Spain reaches 15.33% during the second quarter but there are even more presently unemployed

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The unemployment rate in Spain rose to a staggering 15.33% in the second quarter of 2020, according to data published by the National Statistics Institute on Tuesday July 28, yet there are plenty more.

Spain’s unemployment rate reached highs that it had not reached since the first quarter of 2018, with the 15.33% being a sharp increase from the 14.41% of the first quarter of 2020.

According to a poll conducted by Reuters, economists forecasted that Spain’s unemployment rate is set to rise even more and reach 16.70%.

However, the shocking fact is that there are plenty of people that lost their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic that have not been included in the statistic.

Workers that are currently in a furlough scheme are not being considered as unemployed in the survey.

This was the first time during an economic crisis that Spain has had to make use of very drastic employment protection schemes, known as ERTE. This scheme allows companies to temporarily send workers home or else reduce their working hours, being able to readmit them on their previous conditions after some time.

During the second quarter, there were around three million people in Spain being on the ERTE plan because of the pandemic.

The National Institute of Statistics said in a statement that around a million people lost their jobs during the second quarter, yet these have not all been considered as unemployed in the survey as they technically do not meet the criteria of the survey, one of which being that the person must be looking for a job actively.

Being one of the hardest hit countries by the COVID-19 pandemic during the second quarter, Spain imposed some of the strictest lockdowns and measures in Europe, with this going from mid-March all the way to June.

As of July 27, Spain has registered 325,862 cases of coronavirus, with 28,434 coronavirus-related deaths, being the country with the second-most cases after Russia.

Spain is currently facing the start of a potential second wave of infections, registering more than 2,000 daily cases since July 23.