The 2013 Spanish peak tourist season ended in September. And, as a consequence …

… the number of registered unemployed in Spain went up by 87,000 in one month between September and October.

Data published last Tuesday by the Ministry of Employment and Social Security gave the the total registered unemployed as 4,811,383. That’s just the registered people. The National Institute of Statistics (INE) also surveys the population (like they do in Australia and the US) to estimate employment and unemployment. This survey catches those not registered with the Ministry.

The last data from the INE has a total of 5.9 million unemployed, (before the tourist season ended). Employment was measured at 16.8 million. So about 26% of the total potential economically active population of 22.7 million is unemployed. That’s pretty awful.

But it gets worse. Of those under 25 seeking jobs, 54% are unemployed. And, the total population of Spain is about 47.1 million. So only 48% of the population is potentially economically active and only 35.7% of the population is employed.

Compare that with Australia. The total population is 23.3 million. 53% of the population is potentially economically active and 50% of the population is employed.

The difference here is huge. In Australia, each worker is supporting one other in a growing economy: in Spain, each worker is supporting 1.8 others is a shrinking economy.

So what’s to be done …

Well … the politicians, the economists and the bankers say that Spain just needs to grow and create new jobs. They’re deluded … this problem is much bigger than that.

Let’s suppose the objective was to get unemployment down to about 6% instead of 26%. That requires the creation of 4.5 million jobs, now. And each year that requirement for new jobs goes up by another 100,000 to 130,000 jobs just to keep up with the growing population. (Lots of people migrate to Spain.)

The Chinese might be able to create jobs on that scale over several years, but Spain has no hope. Look at the worldwide total employment by these massive multinationals:

Volkswagen                                              502,000
Toyota                                                       333,000
Daimler                                                      271,000
General Motors                                        205,000
Ford                                                           166,000

Shell + Exxon + BP                                  272,000

China National Petroleum                   1,668,000
State Grid                                              1,583,000
Sinopec                                                   1,022,000

WalMart (US only)                              1,300,000
WalMart                                                2,200,000

• Five of the largest car makers in the world employ a total of almost 1.5 million, total: Spain needs 3 times that many jobs.
• The largest private employer in the world, WalMart, employs 2.2 million: Spain needs twice that many jobs.
• The 3 biggest state owned enterprises in China (they turnover US$1 trillion between them) employ about 4.3 million people: Spain needs that many new jobs. (Spain’s current GDP is about US$1.35 trillion, by the way.) 

Spain is in bad shape. Traditional thinking and traditional economics and politics will not fix it. Productive jobs just can’t be created for 4.5 million Spaniards out of thin air.

Moreover, Spain is just the worst case. Much of Europe in particular, and indeed the whole world, faces similar problems of huge over supply of labour.