On Tuesday 4 October, three years after the launch of the initiative to introduce a "youth guarantee", the EU's spearhead in the fight against youth unemployment, the European Commission welcomed the positive balance sheet in this connection, despite the fact that funding for this guarantee will be much lower over the next few years.
The youth guarantee seeks to provide all young people under the age of 25 or under 30, depending on the criteria of the member states, with an opportunity for a decent job, training or placement in the four months following their arrival on the labour market. Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Workers' Mobility Marianne Thyssen particularly welcomed the fact that since January 2014, 14 million young people had been able to benefit from this initiative. At the end of the College of Commissioners' meeting in Strasbourg, she pointed out, however, that more effort needed to be made by the national authorities.
The youth guarantee was set up at an EU level in 2013 with an envelope from the European Social Fund and the budget for the new youth employment initiative. The Commission has just decided to earmark €1 billion extra for the 2017-20 period, which comes on top to the initial amount of €6.4 billion granted for the 2014-15 period. A sum of €1 billion will also be reinjected from the European Social Fund (see EUROPE 11628).
So far, around 9 million young people have accepted an offer, mainly a job offer, according to the communication adopted by the Commission. A total of 35.5% of them have found a job or resumed their studies in the six months after having left the programme. In France, the results at the end of 2015 exceeded expectations because 31% of participants having filled in the initial questionnaire obtained a contract for work that was more than six months in duration or even a permanent contract.
The Commission has also observed considerable progress in the structural reforms carried out in the member states by the intermediary of this guarantee. It particularly highlights improved public employment services and the development of contracts between teaching establishments and potential employers. A Commission expert highlighted an example in this connection – the Jobs Act, in Italy, a reform introduced by Matteo Renzi, which promoted a significant increase in the number of permanent job contracts being signed through the implementation of the "flexicurity" concept advocated by the Commission. Nonetheless, Italy is not the best example with regard to implementation of the guarantee because only 10.5% of young people targeted by the initiative have benefited from it, as opposed to 80.5% in France.
The Commission also highlight the significant efforts that still need to be made, particularly with regard to the assistance provided to less qualified young people; those who have not registered with the public employment services and others that have to confront many different obstacles to their entry onto the labour market (poverty, social exclusion and discrimination).
In addition, the Commission expert highlighted the fact that member states had adopted dual professional training systems that still required a change in mindset, which would take some time. He also pointed out that the offers proposed to young people in some member states were not of a sufficient quality. This is one of the problems that had already been highlighted by the European Court of Auditors in a report published in March 2015, which drew up a critical balance sheet of the way in which the guarantee had been implemented (see EUROPE 11281).
This initiative will now only affect 15 member states instead of the 20 initially planned, given that six of them have succeeded in increasing their respective NEETs rates – the percentage of young people aged under 25 who are not in employment, education or training – from 25% (Czech Republic, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia and Sweden) and the fact that Finland will now benefit from this aid. Fund redistribution will therefore have to be readjusted between the 15 member states that are still eligible for this funding.
In August 2016, 4.2 million young people aged under 25 were unemployed in the EU, including almost 3 million in the eurozone. This represents a youth unemployment rate of 20.7% in the eurozone and 18.6% for the EU, whereas these rates stood at 23.5% and 21.8% respectively in August 2014. (Original version in French by Thomas Régnier)