Spain's construction crisis squashed Emilio Blanco's third-division football career. The 26-year-old athlete once earned €2,000 a month playing for city-run teams in southern Spain – all sponsored by construction companies. But in 2008, when the country's housing bubble burst, Mr Blanco's livelihood dried up, too. After working for months without pay, he returned to his parents' home and joined the ranks of Spain's 4.9 million unemployed.

It sounds like the start of a sad but common story, but for many young Spaniards such as Mr Blanco, life on the dole is not that bad. He lived at home for a year before moving in with his girlfriend, but it wasn't embarrassing. All his friends with jobs still slept in their childhood bedrooms, too. And his mother washed his clothes and paid for his meals and entertainment. No awkward questions asked. "It was like living on my own," he said. "I could do whatever I wanted."

More than 45 per cent of young Spaniards are out of work – the worst unemployment rate in the European Union – but until recently, they have not complained out loud about it.