In Spain, the employment rate of university students is higher than that of young people who only study secondary education

Is it worth studying? The answer is clear: yes. And the more, the better. Job opportunities are greater if you have a university degree or a higher degree than if you only have a high school diploma or a vocational training (secondary education). And, of course, those with only basic education are more likely to struggle to find employment. The data is clear and dispels the messages that periodically circulate, depending on the country’s economic situation, suggesting that the effort required for education does not pay off in terms of employment. A university education is a social elevator, with a positive impact on young people’s access to the job market, even more so now than twenty years ago.

This is one of the main conclusions of the report Education and its Effects on Youth Opportunities, led by Lígia Ferro from the University of Porto, and Pedro Abrantes from the Open University and the ISCTE (Instituto Universitário de Lisboa), which analyzes the educational evolution of Spanish (and Portuguese) youth and the impact it has had on their job opportunities between 2001 and 2021, based on data from Eurostat and the OECD.

According to Pedro Abrantes, “the educational level of young people has become an even more decisive factor for their opportunities in the labor market”

In their conclusions, the authors point out that the gap in the employment rate of young Spaniards with a basic education level (primary or secondary school) and university graduates increased by 8 points over 20 years.

So, in 2021, the employment rate for young people aged 25 to 34 with higher education was 78.2%, compared to 59.2% for those with primary or lower secondary education, indicating a difference of 19%. In 2001, the employment rate among young people with university education was 75.7%, and for those with basic education, it was 64.6%.

“The educational level of young people has become an even more decisive factor for their opportunities in the job market. This has been a constant trend over the last two decades that continues to be observed today. Additionally, it is a stronger trend among girls. In other words, gender inequality has widened for young women with low educational levels, but it almost disappears among those with university studies,” points out Abrantes.

At the European level, higher education clearly acts as a social elevator

At a European level, the conclusion that higher education acts as a social elevator is more emphatic: between 2001 and 2021, the gap increased by over 6 points in favor of young people with university studies. While the employment rate of young people aged 25 to 34 with higher education was 85.1% in 2021, the employability of European youth with primary or lower secondary education was 56%, indicating a difference of 29.1%. In 2001, the employment rate of young people with university studies stood at 85.3% and that of those with a basic educational level was 62.6%, representing a difference of 22.7%.

The study, included in the dossier Youth, Opportunities, and Futures, from the Social Observatory of the La Caixa Foundation, also compares the employment rates among young people with higher education and those who completed upper secondary education (Baccalaureate and Vocational Training) during the same period analyzed. Once again, an increase in the employment rate gap of over 6 points in favor of university graduates is observed.

So, while the employment rate among young people with higher education was 78.2% in 2021, the rate for Spanish young people with a high school diploma or vocational training was 68.9%. Twenty years ago, the employment rate among young people with a university education was 75.7%, and 72.9% for those with upper secondary education. “Among young people with a high school diploma and vocational training, the latter have higher employment rates. In this case, the gap also increased during the last decade,” Abrante points out.

In 2022, the employment rate gap between young people with higher education and those with basic education widens

Do these trends continue in 2022? According to the researcher from the Open University and ISCTE, yes, and the gap between those with basic education and university education is even widening.

And the realization that studying is worthwhile has brought about a more than notable change in the educational level of Spanish youth. In 2011, 35% of young people in Spain had basic education, 25% had secondary education, and the remaining 40% had higher education. When compared to Europe in that year, it is evident that only 16% of young people had basic education, while 48% had completed high school or vocational training. However, Europe had fewer young people with higher education, at 36%.

In 2021, the rate of Spanish young people who had only completed basic education decreased to 28%, a significant decline but still far from their European counterparts, who also reduced their proportion to 12%. Meanwhile, 24% had completed upper secondary education, also far from the 42% of Europeans. As for university education, it continued to increase in Spain, reaching 49%, an increase that was also recorded in Europe, reaching 46%.

Not having an education implies a significant risk of social exclusion

In Spain, significant progress has been made. However, a large percentage of young people drop out of the education system without even obtaining a post-compulsory secondary level degree, and these young people are now in more vulnerable situations and at a higher risk of exclusion than in the past. Factors such as age, social class, gender, or geographical origin add to these challenges,” says Ligia Ferro.

The dossier Youth, opportunities, and future, presented this week and attended by the deputy general director of the La Caixa Foundation, Juan Ramón Fuertes, includes two other reports related to young people. A second one that seeks to answer the question “Have labor reforms reduced youth temporary employment?”, led by Alejandro Godino and Óscar Molina, from the Centre for Sociological Studies on Daily Life and Work (QUIT) at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), and by Fátima Suleman, from the University Institute of Lisbon (ISCTE-IUL).

And the third one Youth’s personal relationships with their environment, by Joan M. Verd, Mireia Bolíbar, and Joan Rodríguez-Soler, from the Center for Sociological Studies on Everyday Life and Work (QUIT) at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), and Rita Gouveia, from the Institute of Social Sciences at the University of Lisbon.

The 2021 labor reform has managed to reduce temporary employment by 21% in 2023

The answer to the question “Have labor reforms reduced youth temporary employment?” is clear: yes. In this second report (data from 2020 and 2021 were omitted due to the effects of the health crisis), it is concluded that there has been a reduction in youth temporary employment following the labor reform carried out by the Spanish Government in December 2021.

Specifically, youth unemployment decreased by 10.4% in 2022 and by 21.2% in the second quarter of 2023 compared to the same period in 2017, while overall unemployment decreased by around 9% in both periods and the labor force participation rate remained stable.

“Far from destroying jobs, the regulation has been accompanied by a cycle of job creation,” stated Godino

Contractual temporality has notably decreased among young Spaniards since the labor reform of 2021. Far from incentivizing a wave of job destruction, this legal limitation on temporary hiring has been accompanied by a cycle of job creation and consolidation. This contrasts with the fruitless results of previous reforms aimed at limiting temporality in Spain (similar to the one implemented in Portugal in 2023), which focused on measures to encourage indefinite contracts,” states Alejandro Godino.

The third study, Personal Relationships of Young People with Their Environment, analyzes to what extent the sociability of Spanish youths aged 18 to 34 resembles that of the rest of the European Union. It concludes that Spanish youths are the ones who feel closest to their parents (56.6%), followed by Greeks (51.1%) and Portuguese (49.5%). The European average stands at 37.9%.

It also assesses the level of social isolation among young people, comparing the situation in Spain and Portugal with the European Union average. The data shows that social isolation is more prevalent among young people of foreign origin, with higher economic vulnerability and unemployment rates, although in general, this isolation is lower in Spain.