Skills mismatch aggravating youth unemployment
troubles [Europe]
[Source: AFP, 30 January 2010]
With the jobless rate for under 25s now at
21.4% in the European Union, government officials and businesses
are clamouring for more effective support for training and job
creation. Unemployment rates for young people across the EU varied
from a low of 7.6% in the Netherlands to a high of 44.5% in Spain,
according to statistics for December. A mismatch between skills
supply and demand has played a big part in these alarmingly high
figures, says Jose Isaias from BusinessEurope, Europe's largest
employers' association. This is a problem EU officials have also
acknowledged, though they have also warned that it will take time
to improve youth employment. ‘You cannot really achieve results in
the short term because the key and crucial issue here is education’
says Hungarian Labour Minister Laszlo Herczog. ‘Obviously the
nature of these things is that they don't make their impact in just
a couple of months.’
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