debating progressive politics in Europe and beyond
There has been a substantial debate of youth issues on SEJ [Youth Unemployment Debate]. This is a further contribution seen from the perspective of a so-called ‘success’ country. In principle, there are two ways to answer the question raised in the title: I. To be frank: nobody really knows! Whenever you take a closer look [...]
1989 – No (UHT-)milk today! I have never experienced an economic boom. Growing up in East Germany in the 1980s, Real Socialism was part of our daily lives. While the media preached about socialist emulation and rejoiced that we had, yet again, managed to fulfil the Five-Year-Plan ahead of time, shop assistants were silently dusting [...]
Yesterday the OFCE, ECLM and IMK presented their joint Independent Annual Growth Survey in Brussels. You can download the report (which still requires a little polishing in places) here. The aim of this initiative, as the name suggests, is to offer an alternative analysis of the economic situation in Europe and of the policies to [...]
The international financial crisis had disastrous consequences for Portugal in terms of economic growth, public debt and unemployment. Yet, the impact of the European sovereign debt crisis was more dramatic: a mounting budget deficit and recession led to rapid growth of sovereign debt. Shut out of bond markets, Portugal followed Greece and Ireland in seeking emergency [...]
Even though the Nordic countries show marked similarities in terms of socioeconomic and social conditions, there is much that separates them. Welfare policy ambitions may be similar, but when we examine the conditions for youths to establish themselves in the labour market and earn a living, we find significant variations. Youths face considerably less favourable [...]
The Social Europe Journal website has paid a great deal of attention to youth unemployment – and rightfully so. However, becoming fully aware of the depth and persistence of the labour market problems of younger generations requires a broader perspective in three ways. Firstly, researchers need to look beyond unemployment and include other labour market [...]
The issue of youth employment and unemployment in the Czech Republic is a topic whose importance has increased particularly with crisis phenomena that began to be visible in late 2008 and especially during the years 2009-2010. In this period significantly increased unemployment also increased youth unemployment. For a basic illustration we can use this chart: [...]
What was the case with youth unemployment in Greece before the crisis? The inactivity of Greek youth increased with almost 10% (from 63% to 72%) in the period of 2000-2008. This means that for the last decade, over two thirds of Greek youths were not involved actively in the labour market. In addition, Eurostat data [...]
When Eurostat or the OECD release the latest figures on youth unemployment, we know what to expect: alarming newspaper headlines and commentaries full of rates and detailed figures, which provide a good picture of the macro changes but very little explanation of the realities of youth employment in Europe. While I share Steven Hill’s uneasiness [...]
Stephen Hill has a post on this website criticising the use of the youth unemployment rate as a measure of the extent that joblessness amongst young people is an economic and social problem. Unfortunately he goes way over the top in a number of regards, notably the claim that: “Economists don’t know how to measure [...]
Economists don’t know how to measure youth joblessness. One thing we have learned from the economic crisis is that we need better ways of measuring economies, at both national and global levels. The economics profession missed an $8 trillion housing bubble in the United States, as well as housing bubbles in Spain, Ireland and the [...]
The most recent Eurostat data – from spring 2012 – paint a stark picture: over 50 per cent youth unemployment in Greece and Spain, over 30 per cent in Bulgaria, Italy, Portugal and Slovakia and a European average of 22 per cent. The danger of a »lost generation« is no longer merely the writing on [...]
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