Among the general youth population in Europe, immigrants and women face even higher unemployment rates. European youth are the most likely to be unemployed, work part-time, have “flexible” contracts and face general job insecurities, new reports indicate.
The current unemployment rate across the European Union stands at 11.3 percent, with youth under 25 years old representing half of the numbers, NewsNow reported.
The highest rates of youth unemployment can be found in Greece and Spain, both with 50 percent, with Croatia reaching 45.5 percent and Italy at 43 percent. Germany, Austria, Denmark and the Netherlands ranked among the lowest, averaging 10 percent in youth unemployment, according to the 2015 Eurostat figures.
The figures however do not reveal that half of all job creations available to youth today are in “non-standard work,” as suggested by a recent OECD report.
Such jobs imply “flexible” labor contracts which do not protect workers or secure their rights, but benefit employers who can decide to both hire and fire people as seen fit.
Part-time, freelance and seasonal jobs also tend to fall under the umbrella term of non-standard work, resulting in more job insecurity for today’s youth in Europe even as economies recover.
This has also been confirmed by another report from the International Labor Organization, which revealed that only 25 percent of workers around the world have a permanent contract. Those on temporary contracts are disproportionately represented by young people with 49 percent, in contrast to the 11 percent of adults.
Among the general youth population, immigrants and women face even higher unemployment rates. The gap in unemployment between “native” and immigrant youth is 8 percent for men and as high as 13 percent for women, according to the OECD. In the suburbs of Paris, where first- and second-generation Arab and African immigrants reside, unemployment is over 50 percent. In Spain, from the total of those working part-time, 73 percent is occupied by women, while three out of four people with the lowest salaries are women, according to a recent report from the Spanish Workers’ Union.
