Combating Youth Unemployment: The latest European fad? CEPS Commentary, 14 June 2013

When examining youth unemployment in the broader context of its contribution to total unemployment in Europe, Daniel Gros finds in this new Commentary that the problem reveals a completely different picture from the one usually presented. Extreme figures on youth unemployment in the periphery hide the fact that the number of actually unemployed is rather small given that most youth in countries like Spain or Greece are not even looking for a job.

Unemployment is the scourge, not youth unemployment per se. The misguided policy preoccupation with youth. CEPS Policy Brief No. 294, 26 June 2013

This Policy Brief argues that too much effort and political capital is being spent by the Commission and member states on being seen to be doing something quickly about youth unemployment when, in fact, the structural measures proposed will only have long-term effects. Expectations of immediate relief are running well above what can be delivered, especially at the EU level. Given the macroeconomic situation, no policy option will deliver a significant dent in either youth unemployment or unemployment in general. The EU policies on the table that are supposed to have an immediate effect, such as increased lending from the European Investment Bank to SMEs for the hiring of young people, will only have a very marginal impact on youth unemployment. Moreover, this impact will come mostly to the detriment of older unemployed persons excluded from such a scheme. Given the perceived need to ‘be seen to be doing something’, we fear that policies subsidising young workers de facto at the expense of older workers or, even worse, policies that subsidise older workers for not taking young people’s jobs, will proliferate. In fact, it is not at all clear that young people suffer more from being unemployed than older people, or even disproportionately more than older unemployed individuals. In particular, it is not clear that the much-publicised notion of a ‘lost generation’ with permanent ‘scars’ is relevant only to the young generation. The paper ends by highlighting the much-neglected policy option of encouraging labour mobility within the internal market. Although the Commission is ‘upgrading and modernising’ its tools, much more could be done in this area – to the benefit of the individuals concerned, the member states, and European integration in general.

Annual Report on Structural Reforms 2005. “Increasing Growth and Employment”. 11 January 2005.

The Economic Policy Committee (EPC) is made up of representatives of the Member States and contributes to the work of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Council as regards the coordination of Member State and Community economic policies. The EPC also provides the Commission and the Council with advice in this area, focusing particularly on structural reforms.

A profile of Hispanic youth /

At head of title: Special needs groups.

Richard L. Kennedy, Field representative, Development Council of the University, 29 December 1960

(Preferred negative 10)

Manual of surgical anatomy : authorized by the Secretary of War and under the supervision of the Surgeon General and Council of National Defense /

Includes explanatory index.

Reorienting the federal-state employment service.

Mode of access: Internet.

Getting started : a discussion of issues and resources on summer enrichment for youth /

Cover title.

College freshmen with disabilities preparing for employment /

"A statistical profile--"--Cover.

Building bridges to independence : employment successes, problems, & needs of black Americans with disabilities : proceedings of the national conference /

Shipping list no.: 88-618-P.

Between two worlds : youth transition from school to work /

Mode of access: Internet.

Minority employment prospects in public v. private sector labor markets /

Typescript (photocopy)

Michigan plan for the federal documents depository library system.

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Apportionment of the Michigan State Senate : the Scholle case.

Cover title.