The overqualification of young employees in the Canary Islands is above the national average. Around three out of ten people occupy less qualified jobs than they could. In addition, when it comes to young people over 30, one in ten is also overqualified.
In this line, young people from the Canary Islands are the Spanish people who move the least to other autonomous communities. This is reflected in the Emancipation Observatory of the Spanish Youth Council. Specifically, less than 5% of young people from the Canary Islands, who are between 16 and 29 years old, have moved to other regions and only 5% of people between 30 and 34 years old have left the Archipelago, according to these data.
The migratory balance of the young population in the Canary Islands reflects that young people from the Canary Islands up to 30 years old moved more to international destinations (13%) in the first six months of 2022 than to other Spanish regions (2%).
Poverty
Poverty is one of the problems that most harm the Canary Islands and its inhabitants. So much so that the percentage of young Canarian population at risk of social exclusion is the highest in Spain. More than 40% of young people from the Canary Islands live in poverty, according to 2021 data collected in the Inter-Autonomous Comparison.
In this line, the salaries of those under 29 years of age in the Canary Islands are similar to the Spanish average and are around 12,000 euros gross per year. However, in those over 30 and under 34 years of age, it is considerably reduced and reaches 11,000 euros per month.
The Canary Islands is the third autonomous community in Spain with the lowest income in young households, that is, those formed by people between 16 and 34 years old. So much so that, on average, in the islands these households earn 25,000 euros net, compared to the 30,000 euros earned by young people in regions such as Madrid, Navarra or Euskadi.
The Canary Islands is the second autonomous community, where the population between 16 and 29 years old emancipates the most. While the emancipation rate among people between 30 and 34 years old is the fourth in the country and is above 60%. In this sense, about five out of ten young people choose rental housing to emancipate.
Young Canarian men emancipate later than women: two out of ten female family members leave the family residence, compared to 17% of young men.
Employment: full-time and permanent
Poverty rates cannot be understood without also analyzing the quantity and quality of employment. Particularly, 55% of young islanders, between 16 and 29 years old, were integrated into the labor market in the second quarter of last year, but only four out of ten were employed. Meanwhile, in the case of people between 30 and 34 years old, more than 75% had a job.
On the other hand, the unemployment rate in the young population of the Archipelago decreased between May and June 2023, compared to the same period of the previous year, but continued to affect about three out of ten young people.
In most cases, young people hired are full-time, being the highest rate in the country in people between 16 and 29 years old and the fourth highest among people between 30 and 34 years old.
Likewise, Canarians suffer the lowest temporality in the country. Specifically, only 2.5 out of ten contracts signed by those under 29 years of age are temporary. 20% of those sealed by those under 34 years of age are also temporary. Meanwhile, the Spanish average is almost 40% of temporality for those under 29 and 30% for those under 34.
The second semester of last year concluded with the signing of more permanent contracts in the islands than in the same period of 2022. Precisely, 45% of the contracts were permanent.
Regarding the coverage rates of unemployment benefits, about 55% of young people in unemployment receive some help.
How much does housing access cost young people?
To access a home for sale, young people from the Canary Islands must invest 75% of their net salary, while access to a rental home represents 100% of their salary.
By autonomous communities, the maximum price that a young Canarian can pay to buy a home is 100,000 euros. However, the price of housing in the Canary Islands is around 170,000 euros on average, according to the aforementioned study.
In order to access the purchase of a home, young islanders should allocate 2,700 euros gross per month to be able to buy a house.
