Crushing unemployment among the young people in the EU

[citizen k]

Leaders at Davos Put Spotlight on Europe's Biggest Burden

By:Carolin Roth |  CNBC
CNBC.com | Thursday, 24 Jan 2013 | 10:43 AM ET

Business leaders, politicians and labor organizations warned on Thursday that urgent action needs to be taken to prevent Europe's youth from becoming a lost generation, a development which could have severe social consequences.

New unemployment data out of Spain released on Thursday served as a stark reminder of the fundamental structural problems of some of Europe's hardest-hit economies. Spanish unemployment rose to a record high of 26 percent in the final quarter of the year, leaving some 6 million Spaniards without a job. Youth unemployment rose to a staggering 60 percent, a new record.

"The thing that we have to find even better and quicker solutions for is youth unemployment. I think that has a chance of cracking the social fabric. When you look at 40 percent unemployment for the under 28-year olds – that's something that we can't continue to go forward with," Muhtar Kent, Chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola told CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday.

Asked how to fix the youth unemployment problem, Kent told CNBC that it is key to" reform the education system quicker to address the gaps of capabilities between what the businesses need today and what the universities are providing".

German Chancellor Angela Merkel told delegates at the Forum that "our big burden right now is youth unemployment in Europe."

"Whoever is willing to step up to the plate and give at least a small contribution to opening up a perspective to young people, I can only invite you do this in Europe. We welcome anyone with open arms who gives some hope to young people," she said.

Guy Ryder, the director general of the International Labor Organization told CNBC that the "impacts of the [Spanish unemployment levels] are catastrophic and it is very difficult to image what the social consequences of this are".

Ryder added that the notion of a "lost generation sounds like a cliche, but it's a reality for the youth in Europe."

Ryder also warned against the danger of complacency given the optimism in the markets based on the expectation that Europe has turned a corner: "We have to be very,very careful that we don't exclusively focus on the financial aspects, but now more than ever we need to pay much greater attention to the jobs situation."

Earlier this week, the Geneva-based UN jobs agency ILO (International Labor Organization) said global unemployment levels could top the record levels of 2009. According to the ILO's "Global Employment Trends 2013" report, global unemployment will rise by 5.1 million in to more than 202 million in 2013 and could increase by another 3 million in 2014.

The CEO of Adecco, the world's biggest staffing company said the group's key markets, such as Germany, France and the U.S. "may return to growth in second half of the year, but the first six months will still be very, very tough".

"We haven't made progress yet, unemployment will further increase in the next couple of months, especially in Europe, even though it is holding up pretty well in U.S.but as far as Europe is concerned, it will rise further unfortunately," Patrick de Maeseneire told CNBC in Davos.

"But I hope that we will be going for the 2009 scenario again, where industrial employment picked up in the summer."

On Thursday, more news of job cuts came when the Wall Street Journal reported that British bank Barclays was cutting 15 percent of its investment banking staff across Asia.This follows widespread cuts in the banking sector by virtually all global investment banks to respond to a tougher regulatory and market environment.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100404713

Spain unemployment rate hit a record: youth rate at 55%
Spanish unemployed Spain's unemployment rate is twice the EU average


Spain's unemployment rate has hit a modern day record, and joblessness among young people has topped 55%.

Official data showed that the jobless rate in the last three months of 2012 rose 1% to 26%, or 5.97 million people.

The figure, the highest since the mid-1970s, follows Spain's prolonged recession and deep spending cuts.

The impact has been acute for 16 to 24-year-olds, who saw the rate in the last quarter of 2012 surge to 55.13% from 52.34% in the previous three months.

Spain's economy sank into recession after its property crash left millions of low-skilled workers without a job, and general economic decline eroded business and consumer confidence.

"We haven't seen the bottom yet and employment will continue falling in the first quarter," said Jose Luis Martinez, strategist at investment bank Citigroup.

The figures, from the National Statistics Institute, mean Spain's jobless rate is twice the European Union average.

The unemployment numbers will be a blow for Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's government, which was last year forecasting a jobless rate of 24.6% by the end of 2012.

When Mr Rajoy took office in late 2011 there were 5.27 million people unemployed in Spain.

Youth unemployment continues to be a cause for concern across the European Union, not just Spain.

Tackling youth unemployment across the 27-nation bloc has become a serious issue for governments and policymakers.

Italy's prime minister Mario Monti, said on Thursday that the current challenge was to "bring new life to the economy, and the first ones to benefit will be the youth".

Italy's unemployment rate is 11%, and 37% among young people. He said that young people were being helped into work by measures such as awarding tax relief to companies employing 16-24-year-olds and changes to increase labour market flexibility.

But he said improvements were being impeded by some trade unions' resistance to change.

Eurostat, the EU's statistics body, estimates that last November there were 5.8 million people (23.7%) aged under 25 unemployed in the 27 countries, of whom 3.73 million (24.4%) were in the eurozone area.

For last November, the lowest rates were in Germany (8%), Austria (9%) and the Netherlands (9.7 %), and the highest was in Greece 57.6 % (September 2012 figure) and Spain (56.5%).

However, many economists have wondered if the jobless data exaggerates the problem.

Jobless numbers include economically inactive people, including young people who are in education.

Some experts argue that youth unemployment is better and more accurately represented by using a ratio, calculated as the share of total number unemployed.

This reduces the extent of youth unemployment, although the figures remain high.

Eurostat estimated that for the last three months of 2011, the ratio of youth unemployed was 19%, the highest in the EU (9.1%) and ahead of Greece (13%), UK (12.4%), Portugal (11.7%), and Germany (4.5%).


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21180371

[Phillip V]

Should we fear the youth? 

[Josquius]

Yet bizzarely the trend these days seems to be to raise the retirement age....

[Phillip V]

Yet bizzarely the trend these days seems to be to raise the retirement age....

More working old people creates more jobs.

And take away their pensions.

[Caliga]

I look forward to the imminent socialist revolutions in Europe.

[jimmy olsen]

Presumably your law firm is hiring lawyers, so we're not talking about former infantry men but people who were military lawyers. What's wrong with them?

They enlisted instead of joining a top firm after getting their degree?

That's says nothing about their competency or ability.

[Caliga]

No... because Europe is too boring right now.

[Brazen]

To be fair, Spanish, Greek and Italian men would be living with their mothers until they were 40 whatever the unemployment situation. 

The UK expression is NEET - not in employment, education or training.

[Phillip V]

Hardy old people in Iceland? Lazy old people in Slovak Republic.

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/24/older-but-not-yet-retired/

[Valmy]

Man I hope alot of those over 65s are Electrical Engineers planning on retirement two years from now