The Role of European Governments in Addressing Youth Unemployment

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to summarize existing literature and findings on the nature and causes of youth unemployment in Europe today, and the role of European Governments in addressing employment issues. The review focuses on four aspects of the issue: the link between youth unemployment and EU structural and behavioral challenges; the dimensions of informal youth employment, including how to define it, what is the extent of it, and to what extent is it taken into account in unemployment data (or is it omitted like data on discouraged workers); structural changes in the nature of industries, labor markets, and global economic competition that are eliminating whole categories of jobs on the one hand, and adding new ones on the other (but not nearly fast enough); and the available evidence that policy measures adopted to date have been effective in addressing these challenges. Finally, some next steps are proposed, including sketching out a survey methodology to address some of the knowledge gaps facing policymakers today.