strike Archives - usatoday24

the strike has barely moved

March 9, 2026 by usatoday24

We have been hearing for years that artificial intelligence is going to destroy millions of qualified jobs. Dario Amodei himself, CEO of Anthropic, said last year that AI could affect half of administrative jobs entry level in the coming years. Mustafa Suleyman, head of AI at Microsoft, was more aggressive in your estimatesensuring that most professional work would be replaced within twelve to eighteen months. Now the same Anthropic publish a study which, without denying that the risk exists, forces these predictions to be greatly qualified. What the study measures. The research, signed by economists Maxim Massenkoff and Peter McCrory, introduces a new metric called “observed exposure.” The idea is that instead of asking what tasks AI could do in theory, the authors analyze what it is actually doing now in professional settings, using usage data from Claude in work contexts. The gap between theoretical capacity and actual use. Taking the computer science and mathematics sector as an example, language models would be capable, in theory, of executing 94% of the tasks associated with these professions. In practice, Claude covers 33%, according to the study. In office automation and administrative positions, the theoretical capacity is close to 90%; actual use is far below. The authors themselves illustrate their metric with an example: authorizing the refilling of medical prescriptions to pharmacies is a task that a language model could easily automate, but the study’s researchers have not observed that Claude was currently doing it. And the barriers to AI not automating these types of tasks include legal restrictions, the need for human verification, barriers with software integration, and more. That is to say, the researchers show that all of these tasks could already be done theoretically by AI, but they are not yet being done due to these restrictions that the human being himself imposes. Who are the most exposed. According to the studythe jobs with the highest observed exposure are computer programmers (74.5%), customer service positions (70.1%) and those who operate by entering data (67.1%). At the opposite extreme, 30% of workers have zero exposure: cooks, mechanics, lifeguards, or waiters. They are jobs that require physical presence and that, according to the study, no language model can replicate. For this we would still have to give robotics a lot of time. The demographic profile of the most exposed group also breaks with the usual imagination. According to the study, these workers are 16% more likely to be women, earn on average 47% more, and have significantly higher levels of education. Anthropic reveals in the study that it is not the warehouse worker who is in the spotlight, but the financial analyst, lawyer or software developer. Unemployment. This is the most striking fact of the investigation, because since the arrival of ChatGPT at the end of 2022 until today, the study says that there is no statistical evidence of a systematic increase in unemployment among workers most exposed to AI. The effect, according to the authors themselves, is “indistinguishable from zero.” The Bureau of Labor Statistics yes it projects that the most exposed jobs will grow less between now and 2034. We will have to wait a few years to study how the metrics progress. The youngest, the most affected. The researchers do detect a worrying sign among workers aged 22 to 25: the rate of entry into jobs in high-exposure sectors has fallen by approximately 14% in the post-ChatGPT era compared to 2022. The authors attribute this phenomenon more to a slowdown in hiring than to layoffs. But they warn that the signal is “barely statistically significant” and that the causes could be several: from young people who simply stay longer in their current jobs, to those who opt for other sectors or going back to school. What limitations does the study have? From Forbes, some analysts have pointed out that the research measures the use of Claude, not the use of AI in the economy as a whole. Companies also use ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Gemini or own models, and those interactions do not appear in the data. The authors are aware of this and acknowledge it in the text. The conclusion that “AI is far from reaching its theoretical capacity” depends in part on the limits of what they can measure, and not just the actual limits of adoption. So should we relax? The authors themselves advise against it. The proposed analysis is said to be designed precisely for scenarios in which the impact arrives gradually and is difficult to detect until it is too late. They point out that the effects of AI on employment could be more like those of the internet or trade with China than those of COVID: slow, diffuse, complicated to isolate from other economic factors. They also warn that if the gap between theoretical capacity and actual use closes, as they expect to happen as models improve and adoption spreads, the most vulnerable groups will be precisely those who today have better salaries and more training. Cover image | Unsplash (charlesdeluvio, Emiliano Vittoriosi) In Xataka | NVIDIA has lost hope in China, which is why it has started manufacturing its own next-generation GPUs for AI

That doctors, one of the groups with the best salaries in Spain, go on strike is striking. These are your reasons

January 15, 2026 by usatoday24

2026 has started with Spanish doctors on the streets. Although the tracking data is clouded by the dance of figures usual in these cases, thousands of doctors they have seconded today the strike convened by the Professional Group for a Medical and Faculty Statute (APEMYF) to demand better working conditions. Three are its greatest workhorses: guards, salaries and hours. The question that surely more than one person is asking today is… What do doctors, one of the groups, complain about? better paid and with higher status social? To understand it you have to know their day to day life. White coat strike. The year has started with turbulence in the country’s hospitals. Although the first data from the Administration point to a follow-up more or less discreet (those who arrive from the unions show a ‘photo’ very different), one thing seems clear: today thousands of doctors have responded to the strike called by APEMYFa platform that brings together more than a dozen organizations. The protest will last today and tomorrow and is added to those in 2025. One word: statute. APEMY already clarifies on its behalf what its main claim is: the group demands that its own statute be negotiated with doctors in Spain, a “basic standard” that meets the needs of the group. In contrast to the “framework statute” for health personnel that the main unions and the Government have negotiated, doctors want their particularities to be taken into account. That they go out onto the streets right now is no coincidence. a month ago Health closed a preliminary agreement with the unions to carry out this general rule for the health branch, an ‘umbrella’ that will determine the conditions of hundreds of thousands of public employees. Why’s that? Because the collective (at least the one that supports APEMYF) insist in that it has specific “needs”, just like “other professions with singularities”. Hence, he calls for a negotiation “exclusive for the medical profession.” On the table they have put issues such as the management of guards, hours and salaries, issues that have also served as leverage for the strike today and tomorrow. In fact, everything related to the guards (its duration, remuneration and recognition) has had a key weight in the call. But they charge well, right? Although their salaries are noticeably below Compared to other European colleagues, Spanish doctors enjoy good salaries. At least if they are compared to other sectors. What a doctor earns is influenced by issues such as the region in which you work or its age, but Medical Writing remember who are generally among the highest paid professionals. In the INE’s Annual Salary Structure Survey, doctors and nurses appear in the chapter “Technicians and scientific and intellectual professionals”, to which in 2023 an “average annual earnings per worker” of almost 43,000 euros. As a reference, the average for all sectors did not reach 28,500. A wide fork. However, this information must be handled with caution. A year ago Newtral analyzed also the remuneration of doctors and concluded that the fixed annual salary of hospital doctors ranges between 19,000 euros for a first-year MIR and 72,100 for more senior doctors. There is an important nuance: this gross salary indicator does not include guards, who according to the same medium were paid at 28.6 gross euros per hour. Or more, on holidays. The payment varies in any case from one community to another. Other estimates, how are you also published by Medical Writingconcludes that the average salary of a Spanish doctor who works in public health is around 54,200 euros gross, although the range goes from 35,300 to 140,000. Why do they go out into the streets? Because (beyond these figures) doctors are exposed to a considerable load of stress and work, handicaps that are addressed in the statute negotiated by the main unions and the Government, although not in a way that satisfies the entire group. Of all the issues on the table, perhaps the most complex is the one related to medical guards. Right now doctors cover continuous 24-hour shifts, including their regular shift. From the collective they take time crying out against those marathon shifts, which affect thousands of doctors. a report of the Official College of Physicians of Toledo points out that in Spain 60% of professionals face exhausting shifts and that there are even professionals who exceed “36 hours of continuous work”, which for many carries an emotional burden. “Stop 24-hour guards”. Among other novelties, the draft of the framework statute reduces the duration of the guards to 17 hours straightbut in the group there are those who already warn that in reality the norm opens the door for nothing to change. The reason: this limit of 17 hours could be exceeded if there are “organizational or healthcare reasons” that justify it and the doctor accepts it in writing. Another sensitive point is how those ‘extra’ hours are compensated. The unions demand that an hour of on-call duty not be paid worse than an hour of their ordinary day and that they also count towards retirement, a circumstance that now it doesn’t happen. The issue is so worrying that during today’s demonstrations doctors could be seen with signs of “Stop 24-hour guards”. “Just like the rest of the workers”. In your manifestothe Association of Higher Qualified Doctors of Madrid (AYTS) demands to “recognize all of the doctor’s time worked, just as it is done with the rest of the workers.” Their request is clear: “Suppress the concept of on-call duty as a type of duty that is neither ordinary nor extraordinary, with the conditions of obligation and remuneration below the ordinary shift.” The underlying objective? That doctors stop chaining together exhausting 24-hour shifts, periods of work that do not also count as time for retirement and that even generate ‘debts’ of hours. All this while assuming a high level of responsibility for their patients, which has even led some to suggest that 24-hour shifts should be “illegal”. watch earrings. Another … Read more

3,200 years ago Egypt could not pay his artisans. So he found something unexpected: the first work strike

September 19, 2025 by usatoday24

In the Egypt of the twelfth century AC, the reign of the Great Ramses III, one would expect to meet many things: portentous tombs, pyramids, rich hieroglyphs and farmers pending the rise of the Nile to guarantee the prosperity of their crops. Images that fit well in the idea we have of ancient Egypt. If we look at the Deir el-medina From the year 1157 AC, a town of artisans located near the Valley of the Queens, we would nevertheless see something that seems to adjust less to that period: workers promoting a work strike. And not anyone, The first of history. In a remote place in Egypt … Set Maat (better known as Deir el-medinahis Arab name) was a prosperous populated with workers and artisans founded by Pharaoh Tutmosis i. It was located in a privileged place, near the Valley of the Queens and that of the Kings, in front of what is now the city of Luxor. At first The settlement It had just a few dozen houses surrounded by a wall, but it grew and gain relevance. There, in their adobe houses, the workers and artisans lived who at first had An idea: Change the pyramids and mastied for a more protected sepulcher, excavated in the mountain itself. Unexpected protagonist. Deir El-Medina could have gone down simply because of that, forever linked to the name of the pharaoh Tutmosis I, if it were not because in the mid-twelfth century AC it became an unexpected protagonist of one of the most relevant episodes of the world’s work chronicle. The reason? A good day of 1157 AC (Up, downstairs) those same operators who dwelt in their adobe homes and dedicated themselves to shaping the real graves decided to plant. And in doing so they promoted the first work strike in history, a title that today He recognizes him Guinness World Records. Where the hell is my salary? The artisans and workers of Egypt from 3,200 years ago were different from today’s workers. His motivations, no. What ended the patience of Deir El-Medina operators was the delay in the collection of their salaries, which they perceived In speciessuch as grain, cereals, dry fish, beer, vegetables or even The usufruct of certain cultivable plots. As remember The green compassWe know that the workers began to protest when they had more than a week of collection delay. At 20 days the thing worsened and well entered the second month of delays the artisans decided to leave their tools and plant themselves. The problems however were not punctual. They crawled over several years. AMENENKAHT tracks. If we know what happened in that corner of Egypt 3,200 years ago it is largely thanks to a scribe called Amenenkaht, who was in charge of taking good note of everything to inform when vizier. For him we know that the strike arose during the reign of Ramses III, who took the reins of the kingdom approximately between 1186 AC and 1155 AC it is believed that the problems with the workers of Deir el-Medina began Towards 1159 AC And they were dragging, without solution, until “the payment system of the workers of the necropolis collapsed completely”, Comment Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson. “Year 20, second month of the flood, day 10. Today the work squad crossed the walls of the necropolis (the control post) shouting: ‘We are hungry!’ 18 days of this month go that (men) sit behind the funeral temple of Tutmosis III “, The scribe said in a document that is known today as the strike papyrus. It even echoes the bitter complaints of the artisans of the town: “If we have reached this point it is because of hunger and thirst; there are no clothes, there are no ointments, there is no fish, there are no vegetables …” And what did they do? They said enough. They refused to wait more for a payment that was delayed and went to the city to the shout of “We are hungry!”making clear their demands in the temple of Ramses III and in the vicinity of Tutmosis III, where they came to camp. They even went to the Central Gray Warehouse of Thebes and blocked the accesses to the Valley of the Kings, which complicated that the priests and family made the offerings to the dead. In a long pull and loosen they managed to pay back payments and everything indicates, slide Worldhistorythat in the end both parties reached an agreement so that the workers could collect their salaries as agreed. Why is it important? The first reason is the historical relevance of protests. It is not crazy To think that before, in Egypt or even Mesopotamia, similar situations had been lived. And there is Who thinks that the first real strike was lived centuries later, in 494 AC, in Rome, with the Secessio plebis. The truth, however, is that the mobilization of the artisans and workers of Deir El-Medina was officially considered the first documented work strike to date. So figure In fact on the pages of Guinness World Records. Beyond that ‘title’ the episode is relevant for its impact and Egypt. As Remember Joshua J. Mark In World History, in ancient Egypt there was a basic concept called ma´atthe individual, social and universal balance that deposited in the pharaoh a series of responsibilities, including the well -being of the population, the security of the borders and the fulfillment of religious rites. Ramses III highlighted in the second, but his reign was marked by economic turbulence that complicated the payment to artisans. With this he found a peculiar situation: protests before which the authorities did not know very well how to react and that, in a way, “violated the principle of Ma´at.” A milestone that today highlights Deir el-Medina in history books. Images | Wikipedia 1, 2 and 3 In Xataka | The hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt have always fascinated archaeologists. They just missed a key track to understand them

Ryanair will add a strike with delays and cancellations to the cocktail

August 7, 2025 by usatoday24

To the usual mobility problems that are recorded every year during the August bridge, this year the call for the strike personnel of Blue Handling, a company responsible for the Airport services from Ryanair. This labor conflict adds to the long list of open fronts that Ryanair has in Spain, from labor problems with the salaries of your cabin staffthrough the sanctions for the Hand luggage collection or the increase in airport rates. Strike call and its dates. The Earth staff strike Convened by UGT FESMC and CGT affects all the bases and work centers of Blue Handling, the subcontract that operates for Ryanair in Spain. According to the official calendar, the strikes will take place: August 15, 16 and 17 They will be repeated every Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and subsequent Sundays until December 31, 2025, which will affect strategic holidays for their traffic volume, such as November 1, the days before Christmas or end of the year. The Handling blue strikes will take place during the highest hours and, at that time, the company’s services will be interrupted by the billing, loading and assistance services in land for Ryanair, with the possibility of delays, cancellations and discomfort for passengers. Between 5:00 and 9:00 in the morning Between 12:00 and 3:00 p.m. Between 9:00 p.m. and 11:59 p.m. Affected airports. The call will impact the airports of Valencia, Alicante, Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Malaga, Ibiza, Palma de Mallorca, Girona, Tenerife Sur, Lanzarote and Santiago de Compostela, where Blue Handling provides service in the Earth operation of Ryanair. Users affected by the strikes can know the status of their flights from the page of Company’s travel information. From Facua Rememberthat, in case of cancellation, the European Regulation It establishes economic compensation of up to 600 euros. Why are they going to strike? The trigger for the strike is, according to The statement of the UGT union, a protest to stop “a strategy of precariousness and pressure on the template that violates basic labor rights and systematically disregard trade union demands.” In addition, it demands that the company withdraw the sanctions, comply with the sector agreements and open “a real negotiation process” with its workforce. The concrete claims are translated into the requirement of fair working hours, salary updates and respect for the fundamental rights of the 3,000 employees that form the Blue Handling staff. From UGT they lament for “having to reach these extremes and all the damages that may occur, of which the direct manager will be only and exclusively the company and its reckless acting with the workforce,” says the union statement. A new front for Ryanair. This new strike arrives In a tense context For Ryanair in Spain: the airline was already sanctioned with A fine of 150 million euros Retailing hand luggage as an additional service. In addition, the Airport rates rise and the closure of operations In some airports –How it happened recently In Valladolid– They accentuated the disagreements between the company, workers, government and users. Recently, the company has taken holders for labor pressure About your cabin staffas well as for repeated breaches of the Spanish regulatory frameworks. The company has also been forced to modify certain practices before judicial pressuresalthough from Ryanair they have declared that They will keep Your model “Low Cost“In the country. In Xataka | Ryanair charges extras almost even for breathing. Now he will also charge a supplement to whom he misses during the flight Image | Ryanair

A strike arrives at its airports to collapse European air traffic

July 10, 2025 by usatoday24

“Today we had to go home and the first flight available is July 8. We don’t have a floor, we don’t find a hotel, a car, or train. We found nothing.” The comment He is from Mariano Mignola, an Italian tourist who last week suffered in his flesh the effects of the France’s air controllers strike just when he was preparing to take a flight in Orly with his children. Its case is not unique and reflects an alarming reality that has shaken the sector, both in France and in the rest of Europe, including of course Spain: The capacity of Gauling drivers to knock out the traffic European. What happened? That French air controllers have demonstrated their pressure capacity. And big, inside and outside your country. On Thursday 3 and Friday 4, just when thousands of Europeans made their bags to start their vacations, the collective He summoned a break that put the air traffic above the continent. The strike was organized UNSA-ICNA (The USAC-CGT union also added) after two unsuccessful meetings with the General Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGAC) and a clear purpose: improve workers’ conditions. According to Precise I mondeextended to 270 from a total template of 1,400 controllers. Was it affected traffic? Yes. On Thursday the break had already felt in 11 airports From the French network and some of the most relevant in the country were forced to suppress 25% of all its programming. To tackle the problem and adjust the operation to the number of controllers available, on Friday the DGAC even asked to airlines that canceled about 40% of their flights in the three main Paris terminals. Nor for those avoided the intense chorreo of complaints of tourists, Companies And even Professional associations. Can the impact be measured? Yes. The sector has not taken to share figures that give an idea of the impact that the strike in air traffic had, both French and other nations. “The European skies are unnecessarily paralyzing during Le Grand Départone of the most busy weekends for trips “, He denounced Thursday Airlines For Europe (A4E)an association that includes Ryanair, Air France-KKM, Lufthansa, British Airways and Easyjet. To prove it, I shared Some figures: More than 1,500 canceled flights, almost 300,000 affected passengers and more than 500,000 minutes in delays (equivalent to a whole year). And that, he stressed, when the strike had not yet ended. Is there more data? Yes. A4E was not the only one to alert the consequences of the strike for the European sector. In its latest weekly Eurocontrol report Recognize that the network was “significantly affected” by the break and speaks of delays that directly blames what happened in the France control towers. According to your calculationsthe strike accumulated important delay in traffic management, both directly and indirectly. Regarding operations, Your balance It is resounding: “3,343 flights less from/to French airports compared to the previous week and (…), 1,206 less overflows with Gallic airspace.” Was Spain affected? Yes. And clearly. The Association of Airlines (Wing) He took stock Yesterday of what happened and concluded that “one in three flights operated in Spain” on Thursday and Friday was affected by the strike. In traffic that is equivalent to almost 2,000 flights with departure or arrival Spain with delays and thousands of harmed passengers. The collective estimates that during the stop days the average delay of the flights affected in our country was around 42 minutes. “On Thursday 1,082 flights operated in Spain (31% of the flights) suffered delays due to the strike in Gallic air control, with an average of 49 minutes per flight. On Friday, 873 flights were affected (23%) with an average of 33 minutes per flight,” he says. With those figures on the table, ClarifySpain would be the second most affected country, behind France. There he estimates that direct operation (take -off and landings) descended 32% due to protests. What does the sector think? Alert impact on air traffic and tourism. In fact wing claims that are protected with “urgency” the over -uelos in France when the controllers of the country declare themselves on strike to “avoid damage to passengers and airlines.” It would be nothing new, remember: it is already done in Italy, Greece or Spain. “Citizens cannot be captive to the strikers’ strikes in France, whose affectation extends beyond their borders, impacting worryingly in our country,” Crows Its president. Very critical The general director of Ryanair, Michael O’Lery, has also been shown, who recalled that much of the affected passengers did not fly with origin or destination France, but that they crossed the country’s airspace. “It makes no sense and is extremely unfair for passengers and EU families who go on vacation,” emphasize The manager, who has already asked Ursula von der to adopt “urgent measures” to protect the flying. “It is unacceptable that flights that survive France and that could operate without interruptions are unnecessarily canceled, simply because the European Commission does not protect overflow flights or defends the single market.” Images | Charles (Flickr) and Vincent Desjardins (Flickr) In Xataka | We have been binding to the suitcases to identify them at the airport for years. Your employees warn that it is a bad idea

Vitoria has been the greatest city in Spain for years. Now he has turned against him for a gardener strike

June 20, 2025 by usatoday24

Vitoria-Gasteiz can boast many things. Of gastronomylandscapes or heritageto quote only a few examples. If something has presumed, however, in recent years the Basque capital is from Green areas. Its city council ensures that the city has 42 m2 of landscaped areas by each inhabitant, allowing it to be sneaking often in The Top 10 of the greatest cities in the country and even won the title of European Green Capital. Now its gardeners have strike and that vast vegetation cover has become a problem. The parks have gone from being a reason for pride to a headache. Vitoria, “Green Capital”. With the global warming Converted into the subject of priority (and recurring) discussion, more and more cities They choose to apply a “green” logic when planning their urban planning. It occurs both in Spain and in other countries, but few cities have taken a step as determined as Vitoria. In Your website The Basque City Council presumes to have 42 square meters of green areas for each neighbor, 171 kilometers of bike lanes, 115,000 trees in streets and parks and a green ring of 33 kilometers with hectares Field. The bet has not gone badly and the city It usually sneaks in The highest of the national top 10 of green cities. The effort has been accompanied in addition to some important international recognitions: the European Green Capital 2012, the Green Ciudad Global 2019 and the Biosphere Responsible Tourism certification. So much so that the city presumes being a “Green Capital”. And the strike arrived. For A few months However, the residents of Vitoria look at that vast green area, which include parks and gardens, but also roundabouts, gutters, alcorques and curbs with some concern. And the reason is very simple: professionals who are in charge of their care are on strike. At the end of March, the Envier Company Committee, the hire of the maintenance of the green areas of the municipality, He summoned a strike for Demand improvements labor. “Their working conditions are absolutely precarious, with salaries that barely reach the minimum interprofession He warned In March, the ELA union on the situation of the 85 employees affected by Envise. The first day of strike the tracking has already been around 90%, according to the workers, and the City Council has found that its municipal gardeners template It falls short to assume the management of all parks and gardens. “It is a risk”. Three months later and despite the Mediation attempts Among the parts involved, the gardener strike is still underway in Vitoria to desperate the authorities and neighbors. Its acts of fact were noticed very soon. Without pruning, irrigation or stubble withdrawal, the vegetation of the city has faded … with all its consequences. In May Antena3 He informed Already with grown weeds, plants more than a meter high in the gardens, green on the sidewalks and even the appearance of insects, including ticks and mosquitoes. “The presence of fleas and ticks begins to be common and is a health risk,” Recognize to Basque chronicle Rafa Busto, member of the ELA union. To the weed, the carelessness of the parks and the risk of bites is also added another handicap: a much harder year than usual for the allergic to the pollen. After three months of strike, the City Council has also found that the news has climbed nationally and Furibunda complaints of its citizens. “Threatens lives”. The situation has reached such a point that a few days ago the Basque Government ordered to the gardeners who guarantee minimum care of the green areas. The decree has served to The seasons come back to the parks of Vitoria, but has further walked the spirits. The syndiacts already They have warned that will resort to an order that, they insist, “condition the strike”; and the reports of the transport and firefighters service in which the Executive has been supported to make its decision stands out for its forcefulness, warning of serious risks. “The lack of clearing threatens lives, properties, infrastructure and public health, in addition to overflowing emergency services,” They warn Firefighters in their analysis. In a similar line, the traffic service warned that in some areas of Vitoria the vegetation has been felt so much that it has gained height that prevents traffic or traffic light signals. More vegetation, many more flowers. Not all the effects of the strike are negative or all see them with the same eyes. The rains and the fact that the bushes grow at ease has led certain areas of Vitoria to have seen a floral explosion, to the joy of botanists and biologists. “The flowers that we previously considered very rare, today we found them almost in any split”, Point out Gorka Belamendia, of the Center for Environmental Studies, in the SER. “If plants are allowed to develop, biodiversity is multiplied: insects and invertebrates especially,” coincides in The country Pello Urrutia, president of the Alavés de la Nature Institute (Ian). Irene Zúñiga, doctor in urban architecture, even He went further When assessing the effects of the strike: “All botany schools should be here, taking out inventory.” Images | RDA SUISSE (Flickr), Euskadi.eus and Mariya Prokopyuk (Flickr) In Xataka | The most unknown language in Spain is in danger. The 500 gypsies who speak it just want them to leave them alone

Youth unemployment is the key for Spain to cease to be the EU strike champion

April 4, 2025 by usatoday24

For a long time, Spain has been sadly famous in the European Union for having the higher unemployment rates. However, the panorama could be changing, with countries like Sweden and Finland registering a worrying increase in their unemployment figures. Regardless of the particularities of the labor market of the Nordic countries, there is a factor that seems to be the key to this change in tendency: youth strike in these countries has not stopped growing, while In Spain it goes down. A CYCLE CHANGE. According to the February 2025 data Presented by Eurostat, Spain has reduced its 10.4%unemployment rate. In general terms, these are not good figures taking into account that the average unemployment rate in the EU is 5.7% and 6.1% in the euro zone, but they suppose one more step in a progressive downward trend that began in 2013, the year in which there was a disastrous 26.06%. However, expectations have not been so flattering for Sweden, that he has seen how his unemployment rate did not stop increasing to 8.9%, while Finland is 9.2%. Although these numbers are still lower than those registered in Spain, the upward trend of the Nordic countries has already lit some alarms. The situation in Sweden. In Sweden, the labor market is experiencing a significant transformation, especially among young people. Eurostat shows a worrying escalation in the youth unemployment of Sweden that has gone from 23.8% in February 2024 to 25.1% in February 2025. EU sources They attribute this increase in youth strike to the lack of alignment between education and the needs of the labor market. To give an example, Sweden does not have a strategy to prevent premature school abandonment. That reverses in a labor market with young people with little job training. In 2022, before the relentless increase in youth unemployment, Sweden began to encourage professional training among their young people to increase the employability rate of their youth. Despite the measures taken in this regard, the country has failed to stop its escalation. Unemployment in children under 25 years. Source: Eurostat Finland: next unemployment leader? Finland also faces similar challenges, with an unstoppable increase in its unemployment rate. Eurostat data indicates that, in February 2024, their unemployment rate was 8.1%, marking a sudden ascent up to 9.7% in January 2025, and moderating at 8.8% in February 2025. Despite the efforts to diversify its economy, the dependence of certain sectors, such as technology, makes Finland more vulnerable to the fluctuations of the global economy, especially in agitated times such as those that are marking the Trump Tariff Policy. Again, just take a look at the unemployment figures of young people under 25 years to observe the same pattern of increase in the youth unemployment rate, which in February 2024 marked 18.1%, while in February 2025 it was already 20% The key to change for Spain: its young people. Observing youth employment data in Spain, there is a trend opposite to that of Sweden or Finland, with an unemployment rate in young people under 25 who has gone from 29.5% in February 2022, to 25.5% in February 2025. Again, without these bright figures, if they mark a sustained trend that is reflected in their total unemployment figures. Unlike what happened in Sweden, the Reform of Vocational Training (FP) in Spain Yes has had a good answerfacilitating the insertion of young people in the labor market. According to INE data, youth employment has marked a strong decrease in recent years, from 50.23% in the fourth quarter of 2021 for the strip from 16 to 19 years and 27.20% for the strip of between 20 and 24 years, to 38.79% and 22.02% respectively. Youth unemployment in Spain. Age strip from 16 to 19 years and 20 to 24 years Source: INE FP as a quarry again talent. According to Study data ‘How to promote professional training in Spain: recommendations on the basis of German and Austrian models‘prepared by the Royal Institute Elcano, around 50% of the Employment opportunities in 2025 They will be reserved for people with the qualification of the Superior Technician for Vocational Training, evidencing that the labor market needs new qualified talent. This data is complemented with the published By the Ministry of Education, Professional Training and Sports, which shows that the number of FP students increased during the 2022-23 course by 32.6%, highlighting especially in higher degree students, who had increased by 41.9%. Much to do. Despite the advances in the reduction of unemployment, especially youth, Spain still has a long way to go and is far from power celebrate your unemployment data. The Spanish labor market remains vulnerable to seasonality due to the preeminence of hospitality and tourism dependence. In comparison, countries such as the Netherlands (3.8%), and especially Germany (3.5%), with a serious crisis that keeps its economy on the edge of the recession, have managed to maintain their unemployment rates under control thanks to a strong investment in the Formation of their young people already efficient active employment policies. In Xataka | The Z generation hooks the work ghosting: do not go to interviews or disappear on the first day of work In Xataka | Find work in less than nine months: the FP begins to fulfill its great promise to end youth unemployment Image | Unspash (Mitchell Luo, Flyckt Tobias)

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