Brussels, 11/09/2000 (Agence Europe) - Third document of the "employment package" adopted last week by the Commission (see EUROPE of 7 September), the draft joint report on employment 2000 (which is a joint Commission/Council report), contains an assessment of the national action plans presented by the Member States last spring, in which they have outlined the measures taken to follow-up the guidelines for employment and the recommendations previously adopted (Council decision of 13 March 2000 and Council recommendation of 14 February 2000). As pointed out by the Employment Commissioner Anna Diamantopoulou during her press conference, the preparation of the report was made during an economically favourable period, with forecasted EU growth exceeding 3%.
It is a question of the third report drawn up by the European Commission in accordance with Article 128 of the Treaty, following the 1998 and 1999 reports. This report on employment 2000 will be forwarded to the Council for adoption, and the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions for information. It will be ratified by the European Council of Nice (December 2000) as foundation for the new guidelines on employment.
In a communiqué, the spokesperson presents the following general data and information:
- Prospects for growth are good: expected GDP growth in the EU is 3.4% in 2000 and 3.1% in 2001, which should allow for a significant growth in employment.
- Unemployment: the level of unemployment in the EU was 9.2% in 19999, 8.4% in June 2000, and should stand at 8% in 2001, according to forecasts. The geographic and social map of unemployment nevertheless remains very disparate. There are 14.4 million unemployed in the EU; in 1999, the level of unemployment for men stood at 7.9%, that of women 10.8% and that of the young 8.5%. Long-term unemployment (over 12 months) has fallen, going from 4.9% in 1998 to 4.2% in 1999, and represents 45% of all unemployment.
- Employment: between 1998 and 1999 the level of total employment in the UN increased, going from 61.3% to 62.2% (but still below that in the United States and Japan which are close to 75%). 70% of jobs created were so to the benefit of women: in 1999, the level of women's employment stood at 53% and that of men at 71.5%. The man/woman gap is 18.5 points, whereas it was 27 points at the beginning of the 90s. The rise in employment mainly occurred in the services sector. Since 1994, creation of very qualified employment in the management sector, liberal and technical professions was twice as great as average employment creation. Manual jobs, qualified or not, have lost speed. By country, employment growth in 1999 was greatest in Ireland, Luxembourg, Finland, Spain and the Netherlands. The highest level of employment was recorded in Denmark (76.5%), Sweden, the Netherlands and the UK all had rates higher than 70%, and the lowest level (55%) is to be found in Spain, Italy and Greece. Women participation is the highest in Denmark, Sweden, the UK, Finland and the Netherlands, and the lowest in Spain, Italy, Greece, Belgium and Luxembourg.
