> The findings were equally grim for many European countries — Italy and Spain, among the hardest hit by the recession and debt crisis, ranked at the bottom across generations. Unemployment is well over 25 percent in Spain and over 12 percent in Italy. Spain has drastically cut education spending, drawing student street protests.<p>I'm not sure what they are getting at here. High unemployment, being hard hit by the recession and debt crisis, and recently cutting education would not affect adult reading, math, and problem solving skills, so I don't think they are offering those as an explanation for those countries doing poorly on these tests.<p>Are they implying that because Spanish and Italian results are not as good as their neighbors they were not as capable as handling the recession and debt crisis, and so were hit harder?