Report about unemployment Synthesising the problems of unemployment in ROMANIA – UKRAINA - MACEDONIA

SIMILARITIES 1.Bad economic situation 2.Big rate of unemployment in general and especially for youth 3.A great number of young people who work in informal sector 4.Migration of young, highly skilled and educated people abroad 5.Young people are not well organized in the trade unions

1. Bad economic situation Dramatic changes of social and political system after collapse of the communism The process of privatisation started in the early 90’es and hasn’t finished yet The high level of corruption and other forms of criminal activities Lack of foreign investments

2. Big rate of unemployment Macedonia, with a population of 2 million people has over unemployed people.The rate of unemployment at youth population it’s about 60 %. Romania, with a population of almost 23 million people has a rate of unemployment of 8.6%. The great number of unemployed are young people. The rate for the youth is over 40% (in 2001). In Ukraine, the rate of unemployment in general is close to 40%. The situation with young people is even worse, the rate of unemployment for the youth is about 60%.

3. Informal sector A great number of young people, unable to find a legal job, commence a job in so called informal sector, without a contract or some kind of social protection. This in a characteristic for all three countries, with differences regarding the forms and percentage. Is very hard to find precise data about the participation of young people in informal sector.

4. Migration- labour force movement Common characteristic for all these three countries is brain drain or labour force movement, especially for highly skilled and educated young people.

5. Young people in the trade unions They are not well organised Youth sections have been recently established The trade union leadership does not take seriously the needs of young workers.