Low wages and a lack of available jobs are plaguing the EUs young and educated. Greece’s 15-24 year olds are facing unprecedented levels of unemployment, while Portugal is witnessing a mass exodus as endemic joblessness drives its youth abroad.
The UN labor office predicts a global rise in unemployment of 12.8 percent by 2018.
Across the wealthier regions surveyed on current youth unemployment levels – including the European Union – the rate stood at a 10-year high of 18.1 percent in 2012, and is expected to remain above 17 percent until at least 2016.
Only six countries (Austria, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland) had youth unemployment rates below 10 percent. Greece is not one of them.
Greek unemployment is twice as high as the eurozone average, with 64.2 percent of young people out of a job in February, according to new data published on Thursday. The country is in its sixth year of recession, drained by tax hikes and spending cuts demanded by the EU.
“I’ve been looking for a job since 2010 and it has been extremely tough,” physiotherapy graduate Angeliki Zerva told Reuters. “Most employers do the job with interns and don’t need to hire anyone.”
In order to attempt to curb this practice, Greece has slashed the monthly minimum wage for under-25s to 500 euro – a full 32 percent.
Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor
via EU’s young and jobless: Portugal ‘brain drain’, 60% of young Greeks unemployed — RT News.
Related Posts
Greece / Youth unemployment over 64 per cent
Greece’s jobless rate rose to 27 percent in February from a downwardly revised 26.7 percent in January, the country’s statistics service ELSTAT said on Thursday. It was the highest reading since the statistics service began publishing jobless data in 2006 and more than twice the euro zone’s average reading of 12.1 percent in March, reflecting … Continue reading »
Compare attitude on Youth Unemployment and the Apprenticeship Gap
Kudos to David Leonhardt for calling attention to the staggeringly high American youth unemployment rate — 26.6 percent — compared to rates in Europe and Japan. I just want to add that in addition to overall sluggish job creation, one of the problems is that American employers tend to avoid job training and seek workers who … Continue reading »
US / Surpassing much of Europe in youth unemployment
The United States has quietly surpassed much of Europe in the percentage of young adults without jobs. It’s not just Europe, either. Over the last 12 years, the United States has gone from having the highest share of employed 25- to 34-year-olds among large, wealthy economies to having among the lowest. The grim shift — … Continue reading »
America Youth Unemployment: A Growing Problem
Did you know we have a youth unemployment problem? Employers of every size in every sector lament the lack of skills available to them in the talent pool. Whether you’re reading reports from McKinsey, the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, or countless other research organizations, the message is all too similar: our … Continue reading »
Sri Lanka / Youth unemployment one of the highest in the world, especially for young females
The World Bank’s flagship report World Development Report 2013 highlights the burning issue of youth employment in Sri Lanka, especially among females. Jesko Hentschel, Co-Author and Deputy Director of the World Development Report 2013: Jobs said, “One of the biggest challenges facing Sri Lanka is to improve women’s employment opportunities, especially for the young female …Continue reading »
UK / Youth unemployment and the growing failure of education
Unemployment is up by 0.2 per cent to 7.9 per cent. Long term unemployment is on the rise. Youth unemployment is up again, this time by 20,000. Any semblance of a jobs recovery is only visible in low wage sectors feeding into a clear wage squeeze, with the slowest growth in earnings since 2009. A … Continue reading »
UK youth employment challenge – A Report
By comparison to other European countries, youth unemployment in UK is just below average at around 22%, but it is rising and has been rising since 2005. This suggests structural causes beyond the current economic situation: The labour market has been changing in ways that impact negatively on young people Recruitment practices make it increasingly … Continue reading »
Amazing. I agree.