Measures to encourage youth employment in Europe

Abstract

Youth unemployment has its rates higher than that of adults. It is not just in Europe but across a wide range of other regions, especially in Industrialised Countries. A number of possibilities explain the pattern of unemployment among the young and these include youth wages, the size of the youth cohort and a lack of skills. However, training and employment schemes for youth have had, in general, a small positive impact on the employment prospects and a variable effect on the incomes of participants. This study will analyse measures adopted by the European Union to encourage employment among its young generation. It will begin by comparing the situation on the international level, discovering whether the question of high rate Youth unemployment is persistent only in the EU or not, while investigating the kind of consequences which directly or indirectly effect society. Particular attention is focused over the Youth Labour Market and the study continues by addressing the main measures adopted at an EU level comprising the European Employment Strategy and the assistance provided by the European Social Funds in the same field. Success Stories of EU Programmes aimed at reducing the youth unemployment rate clarify better the main arguments within this study. Further on, a deeper observation tracks down the measures applied by a member state in its challenge to control youth unemployment at a National Level. The basic intention behind my thesis is to create better understanding of the difficulties which unemployed youth citizens are facing. Sometimes, it happens that the most educated have to wait the longest to find work and this has been evident in a large number of EU member-states including the most industrialised, such as Germany and Italy. The EU has already launched some effective measures and transposed them from an EU level to National Level. A typical example refers to the call for National Youth Policies and National Action Plans. The way these policy instruments are implemented and exploited does make a real difference!