Spain doesn't need geologists: the reality of unemployment

Spain doesn't need geologists: the reality of unemployment

In the middle of university enrolment season, geology departments are once again selling the idea that Spain needs more graduates in this field. The reality described by those who have already been through the degree is very different: a programme with few career prospects, an oversupply of graduates, and a system that, according to some, is used only to drive down wages.

The graduating class that never practised

The central testimony is damning: a civil engineering graduate who later studied geology says he has never worked as a geologist and that none of his classmates practises the profession. The pattern repeats across two classes before and two after his own. Those who tried their luck abroad, mainly in Chile, had to return when the mining sector shed a significant share of its workforce.

The figure comes as no surprise to labour market analysts. Spanish universities turn out thousands of new geology graduates every year, but the productive economy does not absorb them. Construction and technical surveys are covered by civil and mining engineers. Research is left to the Instituto Geológico y Minero and the Instituto Geográfico Nacional, both of which recruit through civil service exams. The result: a geologist is about as useful in Spain as a philosopher or a sociologist; the profession depends on the public sector, and the public sector is saturated.

A demand that isn't really demand

Another line of thought goes further and suspects a deliberate manoeuvre. If geologists stopped being trained, they could become more expensive. So it pays to keep turning out graduates, not so they can work, but to keep the profession cheap. On this reading, the supposed shortage of geologists is a decoy; the real shortage is of skilled workers willing to accept low pay. The word always left out of official speeches: cheap.

The lack of demand also has a political component. The ban on research into hydrocarbons and nuclear physics has closed the doors of two sectors that traditionally employed these professionals. The few positions left in the public sector go to mining engineers, with whom geologists cannot compete.

The analysis stalls at one point: there is no consensus on whether the problem is a lack of career prospects or a deliberate mismatch between university and market. What is clear is that geology, like other scientific humanities, has become a revolving door leading to the civil service exams — or to unemployment.