Once envied around the world for its high standard of living and booming economy, Spain is now suffering with a 26 percent overall unemployment rate – but the numbers skyrocket to more than double the national average when it comes to people under 25. Talk is rife of a lost generation unable to properly transition into adulthood.

“Our generation is a lost cause because they don’t let us work,” said Palomares-Romero, who lives with her parents in Orcasitas, a working-class neighborhood in the south of Madrid.

Relief could be years away. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently forecast that the country would be stuck with 25 percent plus general unemployment for another five years. This is one of the highest rates in the entire industrialized world. …

An estimated seven out of ten Spaniards between the age 20 and 29 still live at home, according to Moreno’s 2012 report.