With the financial crisis hitting the world hard in 2007, we witnessed a lot of balances getting shifted. For the next few years, bankruptcy, unemployment and migration became a regular phenomenon for the European society. And although efforts have been made to balance these problems and slowly eliminate them, the 2018 European stats on youth unemployment, come to tell a different tale!
The stats’ results so far
Yes, youth unemployment has definitely been reduced, but not as much as it should, considering the European policy that was applied in the beginning of 2008. To this day countries like Greece, Spain and Italy have the highest youth unemployment in the history of Europe. What is worrisome though is the fact that even countries like France and Finland actually appear to have rather high rates in youth unemployment as well.
These stats and of course, the way that things are in Europe right now, with waves of migrants arriving from all around the world, have led many to believe that youth unemployment is going to start posing a risk to democracy. Almost one-fifth of the European youth is unemployed and that undermines their trust and belief towards the public institutions.
Is democracy threatened by unemployment?
We have seen how in several countries the weight of the crisis has fallen disproportionately on the young people, leaving a legacy of failed hopes, anger and ultimately mistrust in the values of our society and in the identity of our democracy. With a large proportion of young people not having any defined role in society, there is a high risk of social cohesion and of trust in public institutions being undermined, with harm for medium-term growth prospects,
~European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said in Dublin.
The rates seem to change but slowly. With the influx of migrants, more young people from suffering countries arrive in European countries very day. All of these people simply add to the youth unemployment rate that seems to receive different blows every day.
Whether Europe will be able to cope with the youth unemployment problem or not, that remains to be seen. European key actions in the field of youth, focusing on youth unemployment are been taken every single day. Will these be able to battle the problem and bring Europe back to a good balance? Or will they fail resulting to more years of unemployment for young people and the generations to come?
