Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Blog 9: Europe's Lost Generation Costs €153bn a Year, Study Finds


In Europe young people ages 15-29 are struggling because they can’t find work or are unemployed. This is having a toll on the whole country. According to the article, this is costing member states a total of €153bn (£124bn a year). These young people are now being referred to as the “lost generation”. However, not only are these young people unemployed, but according to the article they’re also opting out of democratic participation in society. Even young people, who are in work, don’t work many hours or are in low security jobs. According to the EU report if just 10% of the young people could rejoin or find a job in the workplace then it would save €15bn a year. This doesn’t seem like much, however, each year it would add up and eventually would have an impact. Even the young people who are out of education for 15-19 year olds had no work experience at all. Stefano Scarpetta, the OECD’s head of employment analysis and policy is alarmed that young adult population is reaching dangerous levels.  He also stated that if we don’t address these issues soon social and political tensions will increase.

This is a global social problem because many young people are being affected. Nowadays it seems so many countries are being affected by this “loss of job”. This can also affect other countries because if the economy is bad it can make the worth of the dollar go down, which will change a lot of things. Also, since young people in Europe can’t find work, it will start to become a continuous cycle of the country and member states having to pay for these young people through welfare. The article had already stated that this has started to happen. This also isn’t good because this could affect these young people’s social status. Education today is far more advanced than it was years ago; therefore, we should excel in social status by having a better education. However, with the economic crisis jobs are slim and young people are getting hit hard. This also is affecting the country because the more young people that are on welfare the more the country is going to go down in economics. Stefano Scarpetta also made a good point that if Europe doesn’t do anything it will soon face social and political tensions.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/oct/22/europe-lost-generation-costs-study
1:18 pm 10/24/12

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