Youth unemployment in Europe Youngsters face to the crisis

What is unemployment? According to the International Labour Organization, Unemployed person is defined as someone aged between 15 and 74, without work during the reference week and ready to start working in the next two weeks. Unemployment depends on the labour market and the general business cycle.

General view in 2012 According to Eurostat, in May 2012, million men and women in the European Union, were unemployed. Compared with April 2012, this number increased by And, if we compare with May 2011, unemployment increased by The last unemployment rates: The EU-27 unemployment rate was 10.3 % in May 2012, compared with 10.2 % in April; it was 9.5 % in May

Unemployment rates (%) in

How to explain those figures? Return on the crisis This global financial crisis started in 2007, with the subprime mortgage crisis in United States. Then this crisis spread all over the world in a global economic shock. Since 2008, we are in a global recession period.

The crisis in Europe Above all, this crisis led to the European bank failures and contributed to the European sovereign-debt crisis. In 2011, 5 of the most in debt countries were in Europe (excluding micro-states)

Unemployment rates by duration 2011(%) Eurostat As a consequence of this crisis, the unemployment rate increased dramatically in some European countries. Overview in 5 countries

An extreme example: Greece In 2010, the unemployment rate in Greece was already high, as the country went into recession in Since then, each year seems to be worst than the last one. Greek government and people face to several issues: the global financial crisis, the global recession, but also their own recession and governement debt crisis.

What about young people? Youth unemployment concerns young people between 15 and 24. Youngsters are generally more affected by unemployment than the other groups of population. And in time of crisis, they are the first to be laid off. As we can observe since some years.

Youth unemployment rates (in%) Evolution for the last years Source: Eurostat Employment and labour markets: Key tables from OECD - ISSN © OECD 2012 Youth unemployment rate % of youth labour force (15-24)

What are the reasons of this youth unemployment? “Last arrived, first left ”: because of this policy, the young people are the first ones to suffer from the job crisis Government policy of austerity: the public sector is not opened anymore for new workers Labor market selection rules: -Underqualification  unqualified youngsters and qualified ones are competing for the same jobs -Overqualification  overqualification was considered as a good thing during years but now some employers prefer hired people with less qualification to pay them less

Significant impacts Precarity and its consequences: -Loss of income for the younsters -Health repercussion: lack of access to health care, depression, loss of self-confidence, confinement, addictive behavior -Possibility of moving to black market and criminality Consummation: - Youngsters are not involved in the relance  lost output and lost potential for economy Lack of work experience: young people don’t gain work experience and may find it more difficult to get work in the future Impact in government policies: -Higher government spending -Lower tax revenues -Challenge: find solutions Brain drain Conflicting relation with their government

The challenge of youth unemployment Governement policies: International, European and national surveys are presently being carried out on this topic European programmes for young people, as Leonardo da Vinci or Erasmus placements, allow them to gain experience in a formal way “Youth in Action” or “Europe for Citizen” programmes are tools to get work experience in an informal way but also to improve particular skills as leadership, active citizenship...

Answers from the youngsters By taking part in the previous programmes, youngsters are involoved in their own country but also in a European or international level. During the last years, youth mouvements were created. These mouvements, using all the existing tools, are a way for youngsters to fight for their rights. For a lot of these youngsters, the solution to this crisis seems to be the modification of our economical system.

The end Powerpoint created by the international participants during the youth exchange “Turning social exclusion in inclusive growth” – that took place in Sala Bolognese – June 2012