The Spanish labour market is notorious for its high unemployment rate and its exceptionally high youth unemployment rate, job insecurity, impermanence and underemployment. This article presents a systematic analysis of the Spanish labour market’s deterioration process, in particular focusing on the youth labour market. It combines historic reviews with statistical analyses of data from official sources, like the Continuous Sample of Working Lives (CSWL), through different econometric models. The procedure consists of three steps: (a) first, a historical estimation to facilitate the systematic selection of the statistics, in this case contracts taken from a large sample of the Spanish workforce over the period 1985–2015; (b) econometric modelling of relevant indicators, in this case the average annual income, daily working hours and average length of contract; and (c) an analysis of the identified trends and conjuncture regarding precarious work and gender inequality.

La consecución de empleos de calidad y de buenas ofertas de empleo se ha convertido en uno de los objetivos clave de los programas de empleabilidad juvenil; es por ello que los elementos que configuran el empleo de calidad deben ser analizados y problematizados. A través de una aproximación al concepto de empleos de calidad, y de los indicadores propuestos por diferentes organismos internacionales, se analizará en que medida el Sistema Nacional de Garantía Juvenil (SNGJ) está contribuyendo a lograr el reto de los empleos de calidad; o por el contrario, está sirviendo para disminuir cuantitativamente las tasas de desempleo juvenil.

This article presents a critical assessment of the application of the Youth Guarantee programme, oriented toward young people under the age of 30, in Spain from 2013 to 2018. It analyses the effectiveness of programme enrolment and coverage of young people classified as "NEETs" (not in employment, education or training), the adaptation of the catalogue of proposed measures to young people's reality, and whether or not these measures have addressed different intersections, such as gender, social class and origin, as indispensable elements for integration into society that make it possible to shape young people's experiences. Finally, through the 2017 Continuous Sample of Working Lives, which provides a representative extract of anonymised individual data through the non-parametric bootstrap sampling technique, this article will analyse the level of youth employment precarity by gender, educational attainment, and province. Overall, the conclusion is that the Youth Guarantee has not succeeded in changing the precarious position of young people.

This article investigates how structural violence is reflected in the daily life of the peripheries of a medium-sized city in the interior of Spain. For this, three categories of analysis are used: inquisitive violence, coercive violence and horizontal violence. Forms of resistance are also highlighted. This makes it possible to trace the various ways that state institutions act and behave to exercise power over people. These actions have direct consequences for ‘vulnerable’ population, inducing feelings of humiliation, personal and group suffering, the perpetuation of social inequality, the lack of democratic freedoms, and the creation of violent or exploitative practises. Likewise, this path allows us to see how neoliberal logics are applied, their consequences and, most importantly, how they generate new normalities and livelihoods that serve as discursive support for new applications of antisocial policies.