Long-term unemployment is rising in the EU and approximately 12 million EU citizens are a step closer to exclusion and poverty.
The International Labor Organization (ILO) published the World Employment and Social Outlook (WESO Trends) for 2015 and stressed that in the EU, in the second half of 2014, long-term unemployment was about 50 percent. The long term unemployment rate increased by 11.5 percent compared with the same quarter in 2008. According to WESO report, about 12 million Europeans have been out of work and looking for a job for one year or more, New Europe reported.
For these millions of people, there is more at stake than the loss of income, according to the Team Leader in the ILO’s Research Department, Steven Tobin: “After a sustained period of absence from the labor market often times a stigma develops, making it even harder for the individual to return to productive employment and raises the risk of exclusion and poverty,” he stressed.
Tobin urged policy makers to perform prudent labor policies: “We need to make every effort we can to keep these people attached to the job market through a combination of income support and employment-oriented support,” he said.
The European Commission under Jean-Claude Juncker previously promised “A New Start” in its 2015 work program. Commission said that the EU citizens expect the EU to make a difference on the big economic and social challenges. Commission said that it will help Member States which “are facing the difficult challenge of getting more people into work, and ensuring that workers have the skills they need to progress and adapt to the jobs of the future.”
