Improving Employment Prospects for Young Workers in Spain

The unemployment rate among young people has reached painfully high levels, in particular among thoseyoung people with low levels of education. There are two crucial policy priorities to improve employmentprospects for youth in Spain. First, in the very short term, there is need for quick action to target welldesignedactive labour market programmes to the most disadvantaged youth and provide more job-searchassistance and guidance for all youth experiencing difficulties in finding a job in the current labour market.Second, the current crisis is an opportunity to tackle some of the structural weaknesses in the Spanishyouth labour market. This implies in particular reforms to prevent youth from dropping out of education ata very early stage and to improve the school to work transition of young people. Key issues are to bettermatch skills acquired in education to those asked for by businesses, as well as to establish an effectivesystem of vocational education, and to reduce remaining demand side barriers, notably labour marketduality and a rigid collective bargaining system, which both have prevented an efficient allocation oflabour resources in the past and a flexible adjustment during the crisis. This Working Paper relates to the 2012OECD Economic Survey of Spain (www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/spain).