LOBBYING FOR YOUTH EMPLOYMENT !!!

Young people continue to bear the brunt of the job crisis, with neraly 11 million 15 to 24 year-olds out of work in OECD countries.  More than one in five young people in the labour market in France, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Poland, Ireland and Italy are out of work. In Spain, youth unemployment reached 51.1% in March 2012.

Youth unemployment is more than double the unemployment rate affecting the general population across the OECD. In some countries such as Greece and Spain,it's three times higher.

The unemployment rate alone does not reflect the full picture, as many young people, who have left education no longer appear in labour force statistics. At least 23 million young people in OECD countries are neither in education, employment and training, and more than half have given up looking for work. There is growing concern that a significant and growing proportion of youth, even among those who would have found jobs in good times, are at high risk of prolonged unemployment or inactivity. This will likely hurt their entire careers and livelihoods.

On May 24, 2012, the European Parliament passed a resolution on the 'Youth Opportunities Initiative'...... deploring the fact that four years into the crisis € 82 billion of the Structural Funds budget under the 2007-2013 Financial Perspective is still to be spent, and urging the Commission to prioritize redeployment of a substantial part of the € 82 billion towards projects for young people, and especially towards SMEs in order to boost employment opportunities for young people.

In the short terms, says the OECD, governments should prioritize measures that target young people most at risk, notably those who leave school with few or no qualifications, or the children of immigrants. They should:

• Move towards early intervention programmes and effective job-search assistance for different groups of youth;
• Strengthen apprenticeship and other dual vocational training programmes for low-skilled youth;
• Encourage firms to hire youth by reducing social security contributions or introducing wage subsidies. These should target low-skilled youth and those who have completed their apprenticeships, as well as small and medium-sized firms;
• Reduce the gap between employment protection regulations on permanent employment and temporary contracts that can prevent entry-level jobs acting as a stepping stone to more stable careers;
• Ensure that minimum wages are not set at levels that discourage employers from hiring inexperienced and low-skilled young people.

The matter of youth unemployment is not limited to those with few or no qualifications. Indeed many skilled young people are being forced into part-time and unskilled work because they cannoty find work in the fields they trained for. By not using their skills they are losing them and failing any improvement in the jobs market they may be not only unemployed, but unemployable. Others are extending their time in higher education because they cannot find jobs.

Youth unemployment is a factor of the economy to create enough decent jobs. The focus should be on stimulating aggregate demand and expandingb education and training opportunities. Sadly, many governments in the EU are going in the opposite direction, imposing strict austerity measures and cutting funds for education and training.