(kvadrat) Youth employment; a callenge to Europe?

What job opportunities does Europe effort

to young people today? What measures should be taken by the Member States and the European
Union to promote youth employment more?

6. YOUTH EMPLOYMENT

The EU supports member states in reducing youth unemployment and increasing the youth
employment rate in line with the wider EU target of achieving a 75% employment rate for the
working-age population (20-64 years).

Why is it important that the EU encourages youth employment?

In 2015, more than 6,6 million young people (aged 15-24 years) were neither in employment
nor in education or training (NEETs) in the EU.
More than 4.2 million young people (aged 15-24 years) were unemployed in August in 2016 in the
EU.
Although it has decreased from more than 23% in February 2013 to less than 19% in August 2016
the youth unemployment rate is still very high in the EU (with peaks of more than 40% in several
countries). Long-term youth unemployment is still at record highs.
The EU youth unemployment rate is more than double the overall unemployment rate (19% compared
with 9% in August 2016) and masks big differences between countries: there is a gap of more than 30
percentage points between the Member State with the lowest rate of youth unemployment (Germany at
7%) and the Member States with the highest rates, Greece (48%) and Spain (43%).
In 2015, overall employment rates for young people (33%) were still four percentage points lower than
they were in 2008 (37%).
11% of those aged 18-24 were early school leavers in 2015.
High youth unemployment co-exists sometimes with increased difficulties in filling vacancies. This
points to the existence of labour market mismatches, due to inadequate skills, limited geographic
mobility or inadequate wage conditions.
Key actions
The Youth Guarantee is a commitment by all Member States to ensure that all young people under the
age of 25 years receive a good-quality offer of employment, continued education, an apprenticeship or
a traineeship within a period of four months of becoming unemployed or leaving formal education. It
is based on the Council Recommendation adopted in April 2013 following a proposal from the
Commission.
In its December 2016 Communication Investing in Europe's Youth the Commission proposes a
renewed effort to support young people:
Better opportunities to access employment
Better opportunities through education and training
Better opportunities for solidarity, learning mobility and participation

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(kvadrat) Youth employment; a callenge to Europe? What job opportunities does Europe effort
to young people today? What measures should be taken by the Member States and the European
Union to promote youth employment more?

A new initiative is the European Solidarity Corps, which is aimed at creating opportunities for young
people to volunteer or work in solidarity related-projects that benefit communities and people around
Europe.
A Quality Framework for Traineeships that proposes guidelines for traineeships outside formal
education to provide high quality learning content and fair working conditions.
The European Alliance for Apprenticeships and ways to reduce obstacles to mobility for young people.
Financing
The Youth Employment Initiative (2013) is one of the main financial resources to support the
implementation of national Youth Guarantee schemes. It has been established to directly support
young people not in education, employment or training in regions with a youth unemployment rate
above 25%.
Other actions
Your first EURES Job aims to help young people to fill job vacancies throughout the EU.

Youth employment is a priority for the European Union. The situation varies a lot across Europe.
While there is no single solution to address this challenge, there is an urgent need to act.

What is the current situation?

More than 5 million young people aged 15-24 are unemployed
in the EU today.
This represents an unemployment rate of 21.9% (23.7% in the euro area). This means that more than
one in five young Europeans on the labour market cannot find a job. In Greece and Spain, it is even
one in two.
More than 33% of unemployed people under 25 had been unemployed for more than a year in 2013.
7.5 million young Europeans between 15 and 24 are not employed, not in education and not in
training (NEETs).
The young are at much greater risk in terms of precariousness: 42.7% of youth employees were on
temporary contracts in 2013 compared to 13.8% of the overall working age population, and 31.9% had
part-time jobs, compared to 19.6% of workers overall.
Young people have been disproportionately hit by the crisis. Over the last four years, the overall
employment rates for young people fell three times as much as for adults.
The gap between the countries with the highest and the lowest unemployment rates for young people
remains extremely high. There is a gap of more than 40 percentage points between the Member State
with the lowest rate of youth unemployment (Germany at 7.4% in November 2014) and the Member
State with the highest rate, Spain (53.5%). Spain is followed by Greece (49.8% in September 2014),
Croatia (45.5% in the third quarter 2014) and Italy (43.9%).

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(kvadrat) Youth employment; a callenge to Europe? What job opportunities does Europe effort
to young people today? What measures should be taken by the Member States and the European
Union to promote youth employment more?

The unleashed potential of job mobility to help tackle youth unemployment remains to be further
developed: the workforce in employment in the EU is around 217.7 million persons of which only 7.5
million (3.1%) are working in another Member State. EU surveys show that young people are the
group most likely to be mobile.
Even before the crisis hit, labour market segmentation was identified as a major problem in many
Member States. Todays situation reflects a serious and structural problem: this is why the EU has
been taking direct action on youth employment.