In a report published on Thursday 10 June, the Jacques Delors Institute compiled various figures to highlight the deleterious consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic for young Europeans, particularly in terms of training and employment.
In 2020, the rate of young people (aged 15-29) who are not students, employees, nor trainees was 13.7% on average in the EU, according to the report, which is based on Eurostat data.
However, the situation varies considerably from one Member State to another. Thus, while the rate of young people without training or employment is limited to 5.7% in the Netherlands and 8.5% in Germany, it reaches 14% in France, 17.3% in Spain and 23.3% in Italy.
The analysis further indicates that the rate of unemployed young people (15-24 years) increased from 15% to 16.8% between 2019 and 2020. “Young people have more precarious jobs—part-time and temporary contracts, gig platform workers—and are therefore more likely to be laid off first”, say the researchers behind the report, Sofia Fernandes and Klervi Kerneïs.
In the area of education, they point to the fact that school dropout has increased as well as to the inequalities created by ‘home schooling’ during lockdown. They point out that three quarters of mobility experiences were “negatively affected”, with more than half being postponed or cancelled.
More broadly, with regard to the living conditions of young people in the EU, the report notes an increase in their reliance on food aid and the adverse effects of this crisis on their mental health. In the first wave, 55% of young Europeans (18-34 years) were at risk of depression, the researchers found. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)