<story><title>Southern Europe Has Not Seen Net Job Creation in over a Decade</title><url>http://thesoundingline.com/southern-europe-has-not-seen-net-job-creation-in-over-a-decade/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>hn_throwaway_99</author><text>Having a single monetary policy for countries as different as Spain and Germany, with no real shared fiscal policy, is a direct contributor to this malaise.&lt;p&gt;If they had separate currencies, Spain could inflate away a lot of their debt. This would cause a bunch of pain for your average Spaniard, but it would also mean that Spain&amp;#x27;s currency devaluation could drastically help its exports (and of course one of Southern Europe&amp;#x27;s most valuable &amp;quot;exports&amp;quot; is tourism). A direct consequence of being on the Euro is exactly what you point out: labor isn&amp;#x27;t really cheap enough to be competitive.</text></item><item><author>angarg12</author><text>Is not even an issue of number of jobs, but of quality of labor. 
Spain grew economically in the 70s and 80s because it was a developing country, and could provide cheap labor to neighboring countries. The growth in the 2000s came from a massive housing bubble that didn&amp;#x27;t end well for most involved.
As we became a developed country we didn&amp;#x27;t know how to reorient our economy. Now we are too expensive for cheap labor, which is relocating elsewhere, neither we are specialized or competitive enough to oppose other strong economies.
Some times I have evaluated the possibility of going back there and try to make a career in tech. It just takes a couple of conversations with locals to erase that idea from my mind. The country is not socially tailored to attract and retain highly skilled specialized workers, and sadly it&amp;#x27;s an issue that I don&amp;#x27;t hope to see changed in the future.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>pif</author><text>&amp;gt; If they had separate currencies, Spain could inflate away a lot of their debt.&lt;p&gt;Which is why Euro is good for Southern European countries: it forces them to concentrate on productivity rather than economic alchemy.
Spanish labor got too expensive? You don&amp;#x27;t need a government to inflate your currency, you just start lowering your rates.
My fellow Italian workers cannot find a job? Stop talking about &amp;quot;articolo 18&amp;quot;, stop looking for assured indefinite term contracts, accept the reality! Enterprises know ups and downs: when thing go well, they&amp;#x27;ll be happy to pay you good money for your services, but when hell breaks loose your salary will be a burden for them. Either accept that employment contracts can be terminated before your retreat, or keep up the good work... uh, keep up the work... just keep up!</text></comment>
<story><title>Southern Europe Has Not Seen Net Job Creation in over a Decade</title><url>http://thesoundingline.com/southern-europe-has-not-seen-net-job-creation-in-over-a-decade/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>hn_throwaway_99</author><text>Having a single monetary policy for countries as different as Spain and Germany, with no real shared fiscal policy, is a direct contributor to this malaise.&lt;p&gt;If they had separate currencies, Spain could inflate away a lot of their debt. This would cause a bunch of pain for your average Spaniard, but it would also mean that Spain&amp;#x27;s currency devaluation could drastically help its exports (and of course one of Southern Europe&amp;#x27;s most valuable &amp;quot;exports&amp;quot; is tourism). A direct consequence of being on the Euro is exactly what you point out: labor isn&amp;#x27;t really cheap enough to be competitive.</text></item><item><author>angarg12</author><text>Is not even an issue of number of jobs, but of quality of labor. 
Spain grew economically in the 70s and 80s because it was a developing country, and could provide cheap labor to neighboring countries. The growth in the 2000s came from a massive housing bubble that didn&amp;#x27;t end well for most involved.
As we became a developed country we didn&amp;#x27;t know how to reorient our economy. Now we are too expensive for cheap labor, which is relocating elsewhere, neither we are specialized or competitive enough to oppose other strong economies.
Some times I have evaluated the possibility of going back there and try to make a career in tech. It just takes a couple of conversations with locals to erase that idea from my mind. The country is not socially tailored to attract and retain highly skilled specialized workers, and sadly it&amp;#x27;s an issue that I don&amp;#x27;t hope to see changed in the future.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>raverbashing</author><text>The single monetary policy hasn&amp;#x27;t prevented most countries from having growth. The solution is price deflation, which is not as &amp;quot;good&amp;quot; (for variable amounts of good) as inflating your currency, but it works.&lt;p&gt;Tourism seems to be pretty price inelastic to be honest (as seen by neverending lines and crowds).&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt;  labor isn&amp;#x27;t really cheap enough to be competitive&lt;p&gt;Minimum wage in Spain is lower than in other &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;upload.wikimedia.org&amp;#x2F;wikipedia&amp;#x2F;commons&amp;#x2F;thumb&amp;#x2F;3&amp;#x2F;3f&amp;#x2F;European_countries_by_hourly_minimum_wage.jpg&amp;#x2F;1200px-European_countries_by_hourly_minimum_wage.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;upload.wikimedia.org&amp;#x2F;wikipedia&amp;#x2F;commons&amp;#x2F;thumb&amp;#x2F;3&amp;#x2F;3f&amp;#x2F;Eu...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;And this applies even for higher pay functions, it is usually lower than even Germany.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d attribute their lack of growth more than internal culture (management culture, investor culture, etc), lack of investment and other factors.</text></comment>