Brussels, 25/02/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 22 February, the European Commission presented its annual Joint Employment Report 2008, the tenth of its kind. The report assesses member states' implementation of their national reform programmes in the area of employment. It will now be forwarded to the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council (EPSCO) on Friday 29 February in Brussels. It shows that the employment situation has improved in all member states: - over the past two years, nearly 6.5 million jobs have been created and 5 million additional jobs are expected by 2009, in all sectors and especially in the services and manufacturing sectors (with the building of textile machines, for example). Unemployment in the EU should fall below the 7% mark in 2008, which would correspond to the lowest level reached since the mid-eighties. Despite this good news, there is a sizeable challenge at stake: - that of youth unemployment which is around the 17.4% mark, and the lack of investment in the field in education and training.
The employment rate in the EU, currently about 66% (compared to 64% in 2006, the last year for which the Commission has full figures), “has moved much closer to our overall target of 70%”, commented Vladimir Spidla, Social Affairs Commissioner. The rate of employment for women (57.2%, with a 60% target for 2010) and that of older workers (43.5% with a 50% target for 2010) continues to rise strongly across the EU as a whole but another 20 million jobs will have to be created by 2010 if the target is to be reached, the Commission notes.
Unemployment dropped significantly from 8.9% in 2005 to 8.2% in 2006 and almost all member states contributed to this trend. Both women and men benefited as the unemployment rate fell to respectively 9% and 7.6%, and long-term unemployment fell for the second year in a row, from 4% to 3.6%. A major source of concern in many member states is youth employment, the average rate of which is 17.4%. The overall youth unemployment rate did fall over the last year, but this was mainly attributable to significant reductions in a small number of EU countries (Poland, Bulgaria, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Spain), the Commission states.
The Commission also highlights the appearance of bottlenecks with pressing labour and skills shortages in an increasing number of sectors such as healthcare and elderly care, education, many artisan or crafts sectors and engineering. Seeking to remedy this situation, the Commission considers that Europe must improve regional and national labour mobility as well as define a regulated immigration policy accompanied by measures to improve the economic and social integration of immigrants.
Furthermore, the Commission recalls that the fragmentation of the labour market and the fight against youth unemployment is at the heart of flexicurity, a concept highlighted in the 2008 report. Many member states have a great deal of work before them to put this concept into application, in order to solve labour market problems.
In parallel to the joint report for 2008, the Commission sent specific country-by-country recommendations to the EPSCO Council with a view to their approval at political level. These recommendations will then be forwarded to the European Council in March, which each year looks at the Lisbon strategy, the Commission points out in an information note. This will allow member states to agree together, at the highest political level, on respective actions to be taken to move forward with regard to reform. Recommendations are proposed under Articles 99 and 128 of the Treaty and require formal adoption by member states.
Recommendations have a macro and micro-economic dimension. Most of them, two or three for each country, are on employment. This year, 21 member states out of 27 have received at least one recommendation on employment, in areas where an extra effort is needed. Estonia, Ireland, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg and Sweden have not received any recommendations thanks to the significant progress that they have made in applying reform programmes, the Commission writes. (G.B.)