1 employment situation in eu

Employment situation in EU

Aurelija Jankienė

With Financial support from the EU


Definitions

• An unemployed person is defined by Eurostat, according to the guidelines of the International Labour Organization, as someone aged 15 to 74 without work during the reference week who is available to start work within the next two weeks and who has actively sought employment at some time during the last four weeks.


Definitions (1)

• The unemployment rate is the number of people unemployed as a percentage of the labour force.


Unemployment trends

• At the beginning of 2000, above 20 million persons were unemployed in the EU corresponding to 9.1 % of the total labour force. The unemployment trend at that moment was downwards.

• In the second quarter of 2001 the number of unemployment persons had dropped to 19.4 million and the unemployment rate to 8.6 %.


Unemployment trends (1)

• A long period of increasing unemployment followed. At the end of 2004 the number of jobseekers available for work reached 21.4 million, while the unemployment rate was 9.2 %.



• At the beginning of 2005 a period of steadily declining unemployment started, lasting until the first quarter 2008 before rising sharply in the wake of the economic crisis.

• Between the second quarter 2008 and mid-2010 the unemployment level went up by more than 7 million, taking the rate up to 9.6 %.



• In fact, since the second quarter 2011 and until the first quarter of 2013 unemployment steadily and markedly increased taking it to the record level of 26.6 million, corresponding to a record rate of 10.9 %.



• Unemployed persons in millions

• Blue line – Euro zone

• Yellow line – Europe union


Unemployment rates in October 2014


Unemployment rates in October 2014

• The lowest unemployment rates were recorded in Germany (4.9 %) and Austria (5.1 %), and the highest in Greece (25.9 % in August 2014) and Spain (24.0 %).

• Compared with a year ago, the unemployment rate fell in twenty two Member States, increased in five and remained stable in Luxembourg.


Unemployment rates by Country

• The largest decreases were registered in Hungary (10.0 % to 7.3 % between September 2013 and September 2014), Portugal (15.6 % to 13.4 %), Spain (26.0 % to 24.0 %), Bulgaria (13.0 % to 11.1 %) and Greece (27.8 % to 25.9 % between August 2013 and August 2014), and the highest increases were registered in Italy (12.3 % to 13.2 %) and Finland (8.3 % to 8.9 %).


Youth unemployment trends

• In October 2014, 4.983 million young persons (under 25) were unemployed in the EU.

• In October 2014, the lowest rates were observed in Germany (7.7 %), the Netherlands (9.7 %) and Austria (10.0 %), and the highest in Spain (53.8 %), Greece (49.3 % in August 2014), Italy (43.3 %) and Croatia (41.5 % in the third quarter 2014).


Employment trends by age


Male and female unemployment trends

• Historically, women have been more affected

by unemployment than men.

• In 2000, the unemployment rate for women in the EU was around 10 %, while the rate for men was below 8 %.

• In mid-2013, they reached their highest value, both at 10.9 %.


Employment trends by sector

• In 2012, more than two-thirds of all employed

persons in the EU worked in services: 39.6 % were involved in market-oriented services such as trade, transportation, accommodation and food services, information and financial activities and real estate. 30.5 % were employed in public administration, education, human health, arts, entertainment and recreation and other services.

• 24.9 % of employed persons worked in industry and construction, while agriculture accounted for 5.0 %


Europe 2020 strategy

target on employment

• The Europe 2020 strategy sets out a target of ‘aiming to raise to 75 % the employment rate for women and men aged 20 to 64, including through the greater participation of young people, older workers and low-skilled workers and the better integration of legal migrants’, to be achieved by 2020


• Employment rate age group 20 - 64


North–South divide in employment rates across the EU

• Northern and Central Europe had the highest rates, in particular Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Austria. All of these countries exceeded the 75 % EU target. Countries at the lower end of the scale were Greece, Spain, Italy and Hungary.


Labour market policy

• In 2011, EU Member States spent a total of EUR 205 billion on Labour market policy (LMP) interventions to support the unemployed, people in work but at risk of involuntary job loss, and others needing help to make the transition into work.



• Moreover, since LMP expenditure is mostly aimed at helping people who are out of work and wanting to move into employment it is interesting to consider any changes that occur in relation to underlying changes in the number of unemployed.



• LMP expenditure can be decomposed into three main types of intervention: services, measures and supports.



• LMP services cover the costs of all publicly funded services for jobseekers (guidance, counselling and other forms of job-search assistance) as well as any other expenditure of the public employment services (PES) not already covered in other LMP categories.



• LMP measures (active interventions) cover interventions that aim either to provide people with new skills or experience of work in order to improve their employability or to encourage employers to create new jobs and take on people who are unemployed or otherwise disadvantaged.



• LMP supports (passive interventions) mostly cover financial assistance designed to compensate individuals for loss of wage or salary and to support them during active job-search.



• In 2009, the main impact of the economic and financial crisis became apparent with an increase of 28.3 % in the number of unemployed in the EU as a whole. In response, EU expenditure on LMP rose by 29.9 % in the same year. In 2010, however, LMP expenditure stagnated, increasing by just under 0.8 %, whilst the number of unemployed in the EU continued to rise significantly, by 7.7 %. Then in 2011, LMP expenditure fell by 11.1% whilst the number of unemployed stabilised, rising by just 0.5 %.


• This allows changes in expenditure on the main types of LMP intervention to be considered in relation to changes in the numbers of persons unemployed for less than 12 months (for convenience the term “short-term unemployed” is used) and persons unemployed for 12 months or more (“long-term unemployed”).


• LMP measures, which aim to improve employability or help people directly into work, are often open only to people who have been unemployed for a minimum period. This is a means of ensuring that money is spent on the people who most need assistance and of avoiding deadweight losses which may occur when interventions are offered too early to people who would (probably) have found a job without any additional assistance.


On the other hand, unemployment benefits are often paid only for a limited period so that many people who are long-term unemployed may have exhausted their entitlement to these benefits and depend instead on some form of means-tested social benefit that is not counted within LMP expenditure.


Thank for your attention.

Information is used from Eurostat:

http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Europe_2020_indicators_-_employment




















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1 employment situation in eu