The scarcity of job opportunities in European nations is nothing new. But an IKEA store in Valencia recently made clear how serious and desperate the unemployment situation has gotten.
According to an NPR report, the Swedish seller of home furnishings began taking applications on Monday for a new location that's set to open next year. While 400 positions had been listed to be filled, so many people tried to apply online that Ikea's servers were unable to handle the volume and crashed.
About 20,000 job seekers had made a bid for the openings in just two days. That's 50 applicants per job opening.
In recent years, Spain has been one of the countries hardest hit by recessionary conditions. Its unemployment rate currently stands above 25 percent, more than three times that of the United States, NPR reported.
"After 48 hours, we had to temporarily close the job application process," Rodrigo Sanchez, an IKEA spokesman, said. "We're working on a solution to reopen the job page as soon as possible."
Sanchez said when the application portal's functionality is fully restored, IKEA plans to keep taking submissions until Dec. 31, NPR reported.
IKEA, known for its giant blue and yellow stores selling boxed furniture that customers assemble at home was reported to have exceeded $30 billion in the fiscal year 2011, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Jobs in the retail sector tend to bring large numbers of people with a high school diploma or less, and those groups have a higher unemployment rate than the national average, NPR reported.
Wal-Mart experienced a similar phenomenon in Washington, D.C., when a store received 23,000 applications for 600 associate positions. That crush of applicants comes amid an ongoing debate about low-wage jobs in America - those paying the federal minimum rate of $7.25 an hour or a little above that amount.
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