Poverty and social policy in a period of political transition in Spain, 1975–95

The Spanish unemployment rate is the highest among the European Union countries. It was 18.8 per cent of the active population in 1998 and has remained close to this level since the beginning of the 1980s. In fact unemployment increased greatly between the 1970s and the 1980s and until today remains one of the most serious problems for the Spanish economy: there are no easy solutions.