Youth and longterm unemployment is a test for the developed world to learn to promptly solve future large scale job displacement

In May 2014, 5.187 million young persons (under 25) were unemployed in the EU28, of whom 3.356 million were in the euro area. Compared with May 2013, youth unemployment decreased by 464 000 in the EU28 and by 205 000 in the euro area. In May 2014, the youth unemployment rate was 22.2% in the EU28 and 23.3% in the euro area, compared with 23.6% and 23.9% respectively in May 2013. In May 2014, the lowest rates were observed in Germany (7.8%), Austria (8.9%) and the Netherlands (10.8%), and the highest in Greece (57.7% in March 2014), Spain (54.0%) and Croatia (48.7% in the first quarter of 2014). Youth unemployment is 43% in Italy.

Youth unemployment in the US had been about 17% but is about 15% now.

Average overall unemployment is about 12% in the EU. This does not count underemployment.

Youth unemployment has been over 50% in Spain and Greece since late in 2011 and will soon reach 3 years. In several other EU countries youth unemployment has been 30%.

Eurostat definitions on youth unemployment are here

People are classified as being employed or unemployed irrespective of whether they are in education or not. In other words, Eurostat unemployment statistics, in line with ILO standards, do not exclude students from unemployment just because they are students. The same criteria that apply to the rest of the population also apply to them. This means that the fact that someone is in education is irrelevant for his/her status regarding employment or unemployment. However, participation in education of the population as a whole has an indirect effect on youth unemployment indicators.

In the EU-28 in 2012 there were 57.5 million persons aged 15-24, of whom 5.6 million were unemployed. This gives a youth unemployment ratio of 9.7 %.

Rapid reeducation is needed and a culture of making and entrepreneurship – employment and skill retooling and career relaunching

Students are coming out “qualified” and educated but not work ready. They do not have the desired skills and experience. The difficult economic times has meant that companies are unwilling to spend the resources to bring anyone up to speed.

There has been some increase in entrepreneurship (8.2% increase in first half of 2013 over 2012) among young europeans

Would a widespread Maker and entrepreneurship culture (utilizing robotics, 3d printing and other science and technology) be enough to turn around this problem ? Can massively online open courses and augmented reality learning speed up and lower the cost of relevant training ? Solving youth and longterm unemployment in the developed world is an early test of systems and solutions that will be needed if there is more future job displacement from automation and streamlined business processes.

Youth Unemployment is staying quite high not just for 25 and under but up to 35

The economic crisis has had effects that go beyond a significant increase in youth unemployment. Video 1 below shows a sequence of charts like Figure 2 to visualise the changes in one specific country, Spain, between 2007, immediately before the onset of the crisis, and 2012.

First, the statistics show that the proportion of the population in education at a certain age has increased, meaning that young people remain in education longer before joining the labour market, or may even return to education. This is shown in the border between the areas colour-coded in blue and red moving upwards.
Second, since 2007, the proportion of those employed in education and the unemployed in education increased.

Video 1: Changes in the status of the young population, Spain 2007-2012

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