NEW STRATEGY NEEDED TO TACKLE EUROPE'S JOB CRISIS

We are now in the fifth year of the economic crisis and there is little indication of any improvement. Joblessness has reached record levels and the outlook is one of stagnation.

In July 2012, the Euro Area seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 11.3% and the EU 27 it stood at 10.4%. There are 25 million men and women in the EU 27 without a job. More than 5 million are young people. 25 million is equivalent to the total population of Denmark+ Estonia+ Latvia+ Lithuania+ Ireland+ Slovenia+Slovakia+Cyprus+Luxembourg.

13 Members Below 10% Unemployment

• Austria 4.5%
• Netherlands: 5.3%
• Germany: 5.5%
• Malta: 6.3%
• Czech Republic: 6.6%
• Romania: 7.0%
• Belgium: 7.2%
• Sweden: 7.6%
• Finland: 7.6%
• Denmark: 7.9%
• United Kingdom: 8.0%
• Slovenia: 8.1%
• Poland: 10%

14 Member States Above 10% Unemployment

• Estonia: 10.1%
• France: 10.3%
• Italy: 10.7%
• Hungary: 10.8%
• Cyprus: 10.9%
• Lithuania: 13.0%
• Slovakia: 14.0%
• Ireland: 14.9%
• Portugal: 15.7%
• Latvia: 15.9%
• Greece: 23.1%
• Spain: 25.1%

Persistent and pervasive joblessness suppresses production, consumption and investment and fuels profound economic uncertainty. High unemployment also exacerbates the countries' fiscal circumstances by lowering tax receipts and increasing government support expenditures. Most regrettably, long term unemployment inflicts profound pains on millions of EU citizens, their families and communities, and damages the productive capacity and social well-being of the EU as a whole.

Meanwhile the European Parliament's Committee on Employment and Social Affairs believes 20 million new jobs can (or could) be created across the EU over the next few years ? The plan drawn up by the European Commission includes proposals to boost growing sectors such as green energy, IT, health services as well as business start-ups. For this to happen, member states' governments need to adopt certain measures

• To create the preconditions for jobs to open in these sectors;
• To invest in improving skills to help boost productivity;
• To improve the minimum wage;
• To improve access to finance;
• To promote flexibility in the human resource department;
• To make better use of sectors that could create new positions;
• To make the workforce more mobile to take advantage of opportunities in other countries.