Spain has a two-speed economy with high unemployment

A DENSE, COMPACT town of 58,000 people near the gateway to Andalucía from Spain’s central plateau, Linares has been successively a centre of lead mining, a railway hub and the site of a large factory making Santana jeeps. Today it is known for having the highest unemployment rate in Spain, at 33%. The Santana factory, with more than 2,000 jobs in its heyday, closed in 2011. A large Corte Inglés department store shut in March and stands in the main square, decaying like a rotten tooth. “I’ve been looking for work for months,” says Carlos Márquez, aged 21, who lost his pre-pandemic job selling mobile phones in a hypermarket. “There’s nothing in Linares. I would have to go somewhere else.”