Youth unemployment

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Youth unemployment is a special case of unemployment . Those who are considered to be young unemployed are based on the standard definition of the International Labor Organization (ILO) (see below).

Definitions of terms

According to the definition of the United Nations (and thus also the UN specialized agency ILO ), the term young people means “people between 15 and 24 years of age”. According to this definition, more than 18 percent of the world's population are “young people”.

In the European Union , since 2010, young people who neither have a job nor do school or vocational training have been referred to as “ NEETs ” (“Not in Education, Employment or Training”). All young people in the sense of the ILO who are “unemployed or inactive” (also in the sense of the ILO) are considered NEETs.

The youth unemployment rate is calculated on the basis of the total of all young people minus those who are in training or studying or who are not available to the labor market for other reasons.

Deviating from this definition, the European Court of Auditors speaks in its "Special Report 5/2017" on the one hand of " unemployed in training" and on the other of " inactive people in school education"; he does not include both groups in the NEETS group.

Basically, it is important to distinguish between two different, relevant sets of figures when statistically recording unemployment: on the one hand, the internationally used statistics of the International Employment Agency (ILO). According to her, people are unemployed who are actively looking for work, who are available to the labor market at short notice and who do not have any paid work - regardless of whether they are registered as unemployed. There are also national statistics with other criteria. Within Germany, for example, the labor market statistics of the Federal Employment Agency (BA) are decisive. According to her, unemployed are those who are registered as unemployed and who are fundamentally eligible for a job.

Discussion and criticism

Legitimation of the separate consideration of young people

The situation of young people is often considered separately because

  • the level of the youth unemployment rate in many countries deviates (upwards) from the general unemployment rate,
  • the reasons and causes of youth unemployment differ from those of older unemployed people,
  • different measures to combat youth unemployment compared to general unemployment are discussed and
  • the impact of youth unemployment is perceived as more serious.

Youth unemployment rate vs. Youth unemployment rate

The focus on the youth unemployment rate has been criticized as it does not take into account the special situation of the young age group and can thus lead to wrong conclusions. A large proportion of people between the ages of 15 and 24 are in training or studying, which significantly reduces the population on which the quota is calculated. The unemployment rate is therefore always higher among young people than in other age groups, even if the underlying absolute figures are identical. This leads to the fact that the youth unemployment rate increases the more young people start studying or training. The actual situation is presented so distorted.

Viewed the other way around: Young people are included in the unemployment statistics if they have just left the education system at a relatively young age and are allowed to make themselves available to the labor market at this point in time (which is prevented in Germany, for example, by that young people then may take no full-time job as unskilled if their enrollment date within the previous twelve years since they have the compulsory vocational education subject). When young people leave school relatively early, they are usually comparatively poorly qualified. Your chances in the job market are not representative of the long-term job chances of your age group. A “qualification distortion” of the statistics occurs when very young school leavers have unrestricted access to the labor market and are counted as “unemployed”.

To avoid the above-mentioned statistical distortions, the use of the youth unemployment rate category is proposed, which is based on the totality of all young people and thus includes people in training or studying. The youth unemployment rate in the fourth quarter of 2012 was 9.7% in the European Union (the rate was 23.2%), in Greece 16.1% and in Spain 20.6% (the corresponding rates 57.9% and 55, 2%). The public debate, however, by the youth unemployment rate dominates, which now also by the European statistics agency Eurostat has been criticized, which publishes both numbers.

Extent of youth unemployment

world

In the years 2013 to 2015, the number of young unemployed people fell worldwide despite the growing world population. The number of unemployed young people has been increasing since 2016. That year it was 71 million people. The youth unemployment rate averaged 13.1% in 2016. In the Arab countries and North Africa it was 30 percent. In North Africa, only 30 percent of young women had access to the labor market in 2016.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020, according to a survey by the ILO, 17 percent of young people between the ages of 18 and 29 (26 to 29 year olds were also interviewed by the ILO) lost their jobs. Education and training measures were also canceled. The youth unemployment rate will presumably rise worldwide from 13.6% (2019) to around 20% in 2020. Those who finish their studies or an apprenticeship in 2020 will have to reckon with greater competition if the economy will probably only recover slowly, because they will have to apply for a job at the same time as subsequent cohorts of students in the coming months and years.

European states

From the 1990s to 2014, the average youth unemployment rate in the member states of the EU was never less than 15 percent.

In 2011 , in a speech on the State of the European Union, José Manuel Barroso , then President of the European Commission , rated addressing young people's fear of unemployment as "the most pressing social task". In January 2012, the unemployment rate of the then 27 EU member states reached an all-time high of 10.1%. The youth unemployment rate reached record levels in 2013. In the EU as a whole (excluding the UK), 24.2% of young people were unemployed in 2013 and 62.5% in Greece in April 2013.

The situation within the European Union was characterized by extreme differences in 2016: While Germany only had to cope with a rate of 7.9% young unemployed (the lowest value within the EU), 49.9% of all young people in Spain were unemployed at the time.

From March (in brackets) to June 2020, the youth unemployment rate in the countries of the European Union developed as follows:
Spain 40.8% (33.1%), Greece 33.6% (32.4%), Sweden 28.7% (21.1%), Italy 27.6% (28.0%), Luxembourg 26.7% (19.9%), Portugal 25.6% (18.9%), Croatia 23.7% (16 , 2%), France 21.2% (20.4%), Cyprus 19.6% (15.2%), Finland 19.4% (18.1%), Lithuania 18.9% (15.7 %), Latvia 18.4% (12.1%), Slovakia 18.1% (16.1%), Estonia 17.9% (9.6%), Romania 17.4% (17.7%) , Hungary 15.9% (11.3%), Belgium 13.0% (14.5%), Ireland 12.8% (13.2%), Denmark 12.1% (11.0%), Slovenia 11.2% (7.9%), Netherlands 10.7% (6.3%), Malta 11.8% (10.4%), Austria 10.6% (9.3%), Bulgaria 10, 1% (13.3%), Poland 9.5% (8.1%), Czech Republic 8.2% (6.2%) and Germany 5.6% (5.6%).
In the euro-zone , an average of 17.0% (15.8%) of young people were unemployed and in the EU-27 (excluding the UK) 16.8% (15.2%).

The Information Service Wissenschaft sees the COVID-19 crisis as a combination of a severe recession and an accelerated change in the economic structure of the EU member states. He estimates the consequences for young apprenticeships and job seekers from 2020 as follows: “The economic downturn will be associated with structural changes within the economy and companies will drive digitalization and automation. This development will continue to drive the shift towards the service sector and towards middle and higher qualifications. Jobs for the low-skilled are increasingly being cut, leading to higher unemployment rates for such skills, while the employment of the intermediate and higher-skilled is increasing. Young people, on the one hand, benefit less from employment growth and, on the other hand, are more affected by job losses. They also need longer training periods in order to gain better qualifications. "

Germany

In November 2019, Capital magazine drew an overall positive balance of the development of youth unemployment in Germany: "In 2018, young people between the ages of 15 and 24 were more seldom unemployed than ever before in the reunified Germany." was as high as the unemployment rate among all economically active persons in Germany (3.4%). The proportion of unemployed among young people fell from 15.2% in 2005 to 6.2% in 2018. Even in the “new federal states” the youth unemployment rate was lower than the average for all EU countries (8.6%). All figures quoted relate to periods prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, there is a threat of a “lockdown generation” in Germany as well. Jobs and apprenticeships are collapsing. Of those under 25 years of age, 8.7% had lost their job by April 10, 2020, while most older workers in crisis industries could be protected from immediate unemployment by short-time work. It could take decades for 15 to 25-year-olds in Germany to be able to achieve the usual income by March 2020.

Spain

For years, the youth unemployment rate has been particularly high in Spain compared to other European countries. Even before the euro crisis it was around 20 percent. Immediately before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, no country in the EU had a higher youth unemployment rate than Spain. It exceeded the 40 percent mark during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is noticeable that in Spain many well-educated young people have also been affected by unemployment for a long time. Many young unemployed people in Spain are therefore (unlike in Germany, for example) not underqualified, but have qualifications that are not in demand by most companies.

Causes of Youth Unemployment

In the case of youth unemployment, there are the same types of unemployment as in general unemployment: seasonal, frictional, cyclical and structural unemployment.

  • Seasonal unemployment arises from the fact that certain activities are not required in the "wrong" season (e.g. ski instructors in summer or lifeguards in the outdoor pool in winter). This phenomenon can also be observed among young people whose temporary jobs end with the season.
  • Frictional unemployment is usually not very dramatic. It arises when one phase of life does not flow seamlessly into the other. Most of those affected know what happens in a few weeks or months in their training or job. Registration as unemployed is usually required in order to receive wage replacement benefits.
  • The cyclical unemployment develops parallel to the development of the gross domestic product . Business cycles make themselves felt not only in the general unemployment rate in an area, but also in the youth unemployment rate there. In phases of strong economic growth , the quotas decrease, in phases of weak growth and in phases of recession they rise. So far, despite the Youth Guarantee in the EU, it has not been possible to prevent an increase in the youth unemployment rate in times of economic downturn.
  • Structural unemployment is the result of a change in the structure of the economy as a whole. So it is e.g. For example, it is foreseeable that fewer and fewer miners will be needed in the course of the coal phase-out. In the past few decades, many miners had to be retrained. Nicolas Schmit , Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Integration in the EU Commission is currently warning that young people entering the labor market (but not only they) must have a minimum of digital or computer skills.

The youth unemployment rate rises above all if not enough school leavers can find a training place, if young people cannot take up employment after completing their training or if temporary employment contracts expire. Apart from that, young people are more often affected by precarious forms of work than older ones , which enables their employers to be dismissed relatively quickly in times of crisis.

Germany

The youth unemployment rate in Germany is relatively low mainly because the German labor market has only a relatively small number of young people available in the long term. In 1991 official statistics still counted 10.3 million people in the 15 to 25 age group (13% of the population), in 2018 it was only 8.6 million (10%).

Another reason given for the relatively low youth unemployment rate is the dual system of vocational training . It means that the young people can immediately test their school knowledge in the company and at the end of their training they can be deployed directly as a full-fledged worker. Most of the young people who remain unemployed in this system are those who cannot or can only partially meet the demands of an increasingly demanding professional life. Simple school-leaving qualifications tend to be devalued, which means that the dual training system is noticeably less able to accept low-skilled young people.

Finally, the youth unemployment rate in Germany is also relatively low because many young people looking for training or a job are not counted as unemployed. Many - especially those with low school qualifications - end up in the so-called transition area , where they can catch up on or improve their school-leaving qualifications in order to increase their chances of getting an apprenticeship. Since this is not possible for all young people, the transition region is also criticized as a kind of holding pattern, which may be those young people without a training place not escape their compulsory vocational education have not been fully met, ie less than twelve years were enrolled .

However, it has been shown that young employees in Germany after completing their vocational training are not only disadvantaged by a lack of work experience. Most of them do not get permanent employment; this makes them easy to cancel. This explains the relatively high rate of short-term dismissals listed above after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Spain

Like other southern European countries, Spain struggled to cope with the consequences of the global economic and financial crisis from 2007 onwards. The construction and tourism sectors, which had experienced strong growth before the crisis, were particularly hard hit. The national debt rose during this time to up to 100 percent of the gross domestic product and the domestic demand collapsed. The fact that Spain is only slowly recovering from the crisis years is primarily due to the country's weak economic structure. The majority of Spanish companies have fewer than 20 employees, and half are even one-man businesses. There is a lack of important training and further education structures to combat unemployment; State investments in this area are made more difficult by the still high level of public debt.

In 2016, the economist Florentino Felgueroso criticized that Spain was the only country in the EU that had not created precise profiles of job seekers. Although there are six million unemployed in Spain, there are no overviews of the specific skills and abilities of individual young applicants for a job. There are also fewer job advisors than before the economic and financial crisis. Up until 2007, when it was still easy to earn money by working on construction sites, 35 percent of young workers dropped out of school.

The Handelsblatt claimed in February 2018 that 80 percent of young Spaniards tried to escape unemployment by entering university. If this claim is true, then the high youth unemployment rate in Spain could also be explained by the fact that a maximum of 20 percent of the under 18-year-olds and very young adults are available to the labor market and the problem of failed job entry is not as serious as the high one Unemployment rate suggests. In addition, there is no other labor market in the world that has such a high proportion of “people with university experience” as the Spanish education system can offer, which would explain the high unemployment rate among university graduates.

Measures to improve the situation of young unemployed people

Germany

Despite the increasing integration problems, the institutional precautions in Germany can be characterized in such a way that young people are "systematically" supported in their transition from school to work. Various instruments of a system of support for the disadvantaged are used.

European Union

On April 22, 2013, the Council of the European Union decided to introduce a Youth Guarantee in the EU . The Youth Guarantee should lead to a situation in the EU member states “in which young people are offered a high-quality job or further training or a high-quality internship or training position within four months of losing a job or leaving school. A further education offer could also include high quality training programs leading to a recognized professional qualification. "

The Youth Guarantee should contribute to the achievement of three objectives of the "Europe 2020 Strategy": 75% of 20-64 year olds should be in work by 2020, the school dropout rate should be reduced to below 10% and the number of those affected by poverty and social exclusion should be reduced or threatened people should be reduced by at least 20 million.

In October 2016, the European Commission found that 14 million young people had participated in Youth Guarantee programs as of 2014; 9 million would have accepted a job, further education or training offer. The youth unemployment rate in the EU fell by 3.4 percentage points to 20.3% by 2015 and to 14% by 2019.

The DGB youth welcomed the youth guarantee in 2012. However, she warned that "the top priority [...] must be to help young people individually and not to dispose of them in inappropriate measures and artificially exclude them from the unemployment statistics."

In 2017, the European Union's Court of Auditors criticized the fact that progress had been made in the fight against youth unemployment. However, none of the particularly affected states was able to meet the original expectations.

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic , the Youth Guarantee was restructured in 2020. The EU Commission launched the initiative “Promoting Youth Employment: A Bridge into Working Life for the Next Generation”. For young people, it is increasingly about "asserting themselves in the environment of green and digital change." The European Apprenticeship Alliance , an association of "governments and important interest groups with the aim of improving the quality, the range and the attractiveness of apprenticeships in Europe while at the same time promoting the mobility of apprentices ”, in 2020 the number of training places for young people increased to more than 900,000.

literature

  • Cremer, Günther (Ed.): Youth without work. Analyzes, statements, programs. Munich: Kösel-Verl. 1976.
  • von der Haar, Heinrich / Stark-von der Haar, Elke: Youth unemployment and social security. Berlin: Verl. Die Arbeitswelt 1982.
  • Manfred Hermanns : Youth unemployment since the Weimar Republic. A socio-historical and sociological comparison. Opladem: Leske & Budrich 1990. ISBN 3-8100-0728-5

Web links

Individual evidence

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  2. ↑ European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) : NEETs . June 24, 2020, accessed July 12, 2020
  3. ↑ Eurostat : Glossary: ​​Inactive young people who do not participate in education or further training (NEET) . January 16, 2019, accessed July 12, 2020
  4. ↑ European Court of Auditors: Youth unemployment - Have the EU measures had an impact? An evaluation of the Youth Guarantee and the Youth Employment Initiative . 2017, p. 13. Accessed August 17, 2020
  5. ↑ DIW Berlin : Glossary. Term “youth unemployment” . diw.de. Retrieved May 28, 2020
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  7. ↑ Gerhard Losher: Misleading figures on youth unemployment. July 19, 2013, accessed June 28, 2014 .
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  34. ↑ Youth guarantee remains an empty promise . spiegel.de. April 4, 2017, accessed July 12, 2020
  35. ↑ European Commission: European Alliance for Apprenticeships . 2020, accessed on July 12, 2020
  36. ↑ European Commission: EU Commission starts the initiative "Promoting youth employment: A bridge into working life for the next generation" . July 1, 2020, accessed July 12, 2020