Spain today

A friend of mine owns a country bar and restaurant and decided to cash in on Spain´s soccer success and organised an outdoor party for the final on Sunday night. He rented a giant screen, got permission from police to close the road outside and planned an eight euro menu for football fans. All was going well on Sunday morning, he had in excess of 200 bookings. But he had a problem. And it was a big one. He couldn´t get any staff. Now, in a country with five million unemployed this sounds outrageous, but sadly it is true. Now my friend say that for one shift he offers more than the going rate and for a night´s work serving tables he was willing to pay in excess of 70 euros. But there were no takers. In other words watching the football appeared to have come first for many people and even though Spain has a serious unemployment problem no-one appears to be willing to serve tables. Spain´s unemployment problem is two fold: there are few jobs available and those that are do not appear to interest the majority. Spain´s soccer triumph may have given the country a lift but the severe economic problems remain. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has vowed to tackle Spain´s enormous unemployment problem but he faces an uphill task. My restaurant owner friend says that the problem is widespread and that many young Spaniards simply do not want to work. He says that it is a disgrace and it is a good insight into Spain at the moment.