Europeans believe that unemployment is by far the main problem that their country is facing. More than half of them answer this (51%), far ahead of the economic situation (33%), inflation (20%) and the public debt (15%)
Hence these four economic questions dominate Euro- pean concern. But an analysis of developments reveals that although unemployment is still rising (+3 points since autumn 2012), this is not the case in other eco- nomic dimensions which are declining: this is the case
with the economic situation (-4), price/inflation rises (-4), and with the public debt (-2). It is a general trend: although the preoccupation regarding unem- ployment continues to increase, generally economic issues are losing ground.
The decline in concern about economic issues is oc- curring in part to the benefit of unemployment but other issues of concern are also on the rise: this is the case with crime (+1), immigration (+2), retire- ment (+1), the education system (+1), and housing (+1).
Taken individually these increases are limited but we should note however that the general trend is upwards as far as social and societal issues are concerned.
This shift in concern from the economic to the social sphere is significant: although in periods of crisis, economic issues mainly prevail, social and societal issues are clearly more significant in periods of (rela- tive) economic prosperity, as for example before the summer of 2007. Let us look back: what were the main national concerns of Europeans in the spring of 2007? : the first three positions were domi- nated by unemployment (34%), crime (24%) and the economic situation (20%), ahead of price rises (18%), the healthcare system (18%), and immigra- tion (15%). Terrorism and pensions were quoted by 12% of the Europeans, ahead of the education system (9%), taxes (8%) and housing (8%).
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