27 million Europeans are unemployed. The longest recession since the 1930s is slowly giving way to
the weakest of recoveries. Inequality is rising, living standards falling. More and more workers are in precarious, insecure jobs. Real wage levels – even in the strongest economies – are lower than a decade ago. Something has gone badly wrong – that’s why the Socialists and Democrats want a far-reaching shift in EU policy, in order to create more and better jobs, and to put Europe on a more credible path to 21st-century growth and competitiveness.
With so many Europeans unemployed, and a workforce which will grow by another 10 million by 2025, Europe urgently needs to create more jobs. Just to halve the unemployment rate in the next decade, the European Union needs over 20 million new jobs.
The biggest step towards that target will be to restore growth but that won’t be enough on its own. Jobless growth remains a real risk and there are also dangers that Europe could be heading back to the future: back to the same credit-fuelled, unstable, unbalanced, highly unequal economic model that caused the financial collapse of 2008 and the longest recession in decades. 
The boost to employment is particularly impressive – almost 3.5 million people getting back into employment in the euro area in just the first three years alone. Similar research done by the Danish institute ECLM last year indicated an increase in EU- 27 employment by 5.8 million people by 2019.
An investment plan alone is not sufficient to ensure that economic recovery is translated into job creation. We also need policies that allow job-rich sectors to flourish and that maximise job creation across the board. Six years into the crisis, Europe shows no signs of undertaking the rebalancing we need in order to build a more secure economic future. This has to change. The S&D Group will work to create an economic environment that supports productive industry and services rather than an overgrown financial sector, and that promotes a more inclusive, more equal economic future.
Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at Europe back to work. A 10-point plan for change | Socialists & Democrats.
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