The Crisis of Employment Supports: Experiences of Vulnerability in Spanish Unemployed Workers over 45 Years Old

We will present part of the results of the Research Project ‘New forms of socio-existential vulnerability, supports and care in Spain (VULSOCU) carried out between 2017 and 2020 and funded by the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Economy and Competitiveness, the State Research Agency (AEI) and the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER). The aim of the paper will be to briefly analyse the results of the project on the consequences that occur when people over 45 years old in Spain lose employment supports. Therefore we will take into account the categories of social class, gender and generation. To do so, we have carried out our own analysis of more than ten semi-structured interviews and four focus groups developed in different regions of Spain between 2018 and 2019. We will comment the current crisis of public protection supports, the crisis of masculinity linked to the ideal of self-sufficiency, and the affectation of family supports and social and friendship relationships. Among other issues, we have found out how institutional neglect is increasingly taken for granted but unemployed workers over 45 years old in a context of progressive cuts in social benefits, at the same time as the loss of employment is experienced differently by women and men. For men, being a worker is one of the main sources of social recognition, so the loss of employment means the loss of social existence, but it is not the same for women.