I have just returned from an extended trip to Spain and parts of Portugal. We were told by our guide that “the Spanish economy is in shambles”. The unemployment rate is between 25-50 percent dependent on where you are in the country. The more highly educated you are, the greater the unemployment rate. The son of our host was let go from the Airbus Corporation where he worked as an engineer and wound up in Australia on a year-long work visa. At the end of the year, he returned to Spain and is now working in Wales. In a city called Salamanca, we were told that 75 percent of the people of the city over the age of 45 are unemployed. In other words, the Spanish economy is being attacked from both sides. The young educated population cannot find work and those at the top are unemployed. My feeling is that once they leave Spain, many will not return. This has implications regarding the birth rate, and the funding of social and medical services.
Our guide in Portugal, a Canadian citizen, said that she was sending her children to Canada in order to get an education because the Portuguese education system is so bad.
I live in New Mexico and have been told that young people are leaving the state because they cannot find work in the areas that they were trained for.