Light at the end of the dole queue

PUBLISHED: January 18, 2013 at 11:55 am  •  LAST EDITED: January 18, 2013 at 1:31 pm
Lead2, National News  •  0 Comments

• Unemployment queue in Madrid

MUSICIANS stormed into a packed unemployment office in Spain to play a Beatles classic in the hope of cheering people up.

The stunt took place in a Madrid office earlier this month and was organised by TV programme, Carne Cruda 2.0, aired on the Cadena SER network.

The flashmob orchestra emerged alongside the long queue of people and began a rendition of “Here Comes the Sun”.

Staff and customers were soon singing along to the optimistic tune and work in the office came to a temporary standstill.

But despite the cheerful interlude, Spain is facing the worst economic crisis in its modern history, with huge debts and harsh austerity measures imposed by the government.

Around 26% of the population in Spain is currently unemployed with numbers expected to rise.

More than half of people aged 25 or under are unemployed, with Spain losing around 800,000 jobs in 2012 alone.

By 2022, Oxfam estimates that around18 million Spaniards (38% of the population) could be living in poverty.

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