Spain’s Jobless Numbers Almost Look Like Misprints
According to survey results collected by the European Union, despite a recovering economy in Spain, the unemployment rate has still hovered around or above 20% for the last five years. This number is considerably higher than other struggling countries such as Italy, which has an unemployment rate of 11% and Portugal, which sits at 12%. This unemployment rate may be slightly higher due to many workers who have "off-the-books jobs". Despite this, Spanish officials do not expect the country's unemployment rate to fall below 15% before 2019.
See "Spain’s Jobless Numbers Almost Look Like Misprints", Peter Eavis, The New York Times, May 2, 2016