100,000 Romanians unemployed in Spain

In the second quarter of 2008, Spanish authorities identified almost 100,000 unemployed Romanians, and their number is set to increase by one third by year-end, due to the international economic crisis which is already affecting Spain.

According to statistics released by Spanish institutions, Romanians are the largest immigrant community in the country. Of the 700,000 Romanians living in Spain, some 630,000 have legal residence there. However, less than half (some 230,000 people) are registered with social security.

Of the 448,000 Romanians working there, more than one third are unskilled workers, a further third are specialists in several fields. Only a few hundred have higher education and work as engineers, experts and department managers.

Due to the economic crisis in Spain, some one million foreigners are likely to become unemployed by the end of 2008. Of these, some 130,000 could be Romanians. This high unemployment rate is explained by the fact that many Romanians worked in the construction sector, which tumbled this year.

The ASG study shows that Romanians contribute some €8 billion to Spain’s gross domestic product (GDP), as salary contributions, equivalent to 0.71 percent of the country’s GDP.