Lottery for employment in Spain

Unemployment is a major concern in all of Europe but Spain and especially, one small town of Spain has an alarming high rate of unemployment. While the overall unemployment rate of Spain, in the second quarter of 2013 is 26.26%; Alameda village, which has a population of around 5000, has an unemployment rate of around 50%.

To overcome this problem and get fresh recruits regularly for the local municipality jobs, Alameda’s mayor Juan Lorenzo Pineda Claverias has come up with a lottery system. Every month, aired live on local television, the village mayor draws folded paper from a transparent container and decides who will get work. In 2012, the lottery provided temporary employment to around 35 people but in a village of over 5000; awaiting one’s turn will take a while. The good thing is that winners cannot resubmit their names for the lottery until everyone else had had their turn.

This unusual method of employment might work in Spain and even Europe but if such a situation ever arises in India; it would take decades for even a small village to gain employment. Not to forget with corruption, politics and what-not; the lottery system might never actually get implemented for the people in need.