High unemployment spurs startups in Spain

With more than one-quarter of Spain unemployed, more people are looking to entrepreneurship to get by.

Currently, Spain's unemployment rate sits at 26.3 percent. And while it decreased from 27.2 percent in the first quarter of 2013 -- the first time the unemployment rate has dipped in two years -- it's still incredibly high. According to Bloomberg, Spain's unemployment problem has led to registrations of self-employed people rising by nearly 22,000 over the first seven months of 2013. Over the same time last year that number fell by almost 7,000. The number of new companies created also increased by more than eight percent over the first half of 2013. As Bloomberg reports, it's coming out of necessity:

“There are indications that necessity entrepreneurship, people who create a business to exit unemployment rather than by opportunity, is increasing in Spain,” said Mariarosa Lunati, Paris-based economist at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development who specializes in entrepreneurship. “This seems to be happening in other countries that are in a situation of crisis as well.”

This is both good and bad news. It's bad news because the startup rate wouldn't be so high if there were more jobs. The good news is that more Spaniards are trying to make the best of a bad situation and some of these new entrepreneurs could end up helping the Spanish economy in the long run. And as SmartPlanet's Jennifer Riggins has pointed out before that's no small feat as Spain is no easy place to start a business.

Read more: Bloomberg

Photo: Flickr/giladr

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com