With the sudden drop in construction here, jobs disappeared. This shows another problem with a growth model built on construction: Employment swings up and down dramatically.
Professor JOAQUIN ARANGO (Director, Center for the Study of Migration and Citizenship, Ortega y Gasset Foundation): The Spanish economy is labor intensive.
GJELTEN: Joaquin Arango, of the Ortega y Gasset Foundation, points out that the economic boom in Spain brought more people into the workforce but mostly in low skill areas, like construction. A lot of the jobs could be filled by foreign-born workers. Arango, a sociologist, has documented the surge in the immigrant population that began with the economic boon in the last 1990s.
Prof. ARANGO: As a percentage of the population, at the beginning of that period, was two and a half percent or so. And now it is over 12 percent.
GJELTEN: Thats dramatic.
Prof. ARANGO: Yeah, spectacular.
Read or listen to it all.
NPR–What Went Wrong In Spain But Why It Isn't Greece
With the sudden drop in construction here, jobs disappeared. This shows another problem with a growth model built on construction: Employment swings up and down dramatically.
Professor JOAQUIN ARANGO (Director, Center for the Study of Migration and Citizenship, Ortega y Gasset Foundation): The Spanish economy is labor intensive.
GJELTEN: Joaquin Arango, of the Ortega y Gasset Foundation, points out that the economic boom in Spain brought more people into the workforce but mostly in low skill areas, like construction. A lot of the jobs could be filled by foreign-born workers. Arango, a sociologist, has documented the surge in the immigrant population that began with the economic boon in the last 1990s.
Prof. ARANGO: As a percentage of the population, at the beginning of that period, was two and a half percent or so. And now it is over 12 percent.
GJELTEN: Thats dramatic.
Prof. ARANGO: Yeah, spectacular.
Read or listen to it all.