Spanish Unemployment

A primary metric that Spain bears will point to is that the unemployment rate in Spain is the highest among its peers.  The IMF quotes the rate at 19.7%, but it is often reported to be in the 25% range.  The methodology to calculate unemployment can vary widely from country to country, making it more difficult to compare the metric across countries.  In order to normalize the effect of differences in method, a broader employment to total population metric is shown below.  Spain fares slightly better on this basis.