EU’s youth unemployment exceeds 50% in some regions

The tragedy of long-term youth unemployment is barely spoken of in Brussels

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2023

A Facts4EU summary of the EU’s forgotten generation

The tragedy of persistently high youth unemployment in parts of the EU rarely seems to be the subject of statements by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Yet from Portugal in the west to Greece in the east there are areas of the EU where rates have been excessive for years.

The Facts4EU team has interrogated the database of the EU’s statistics agency and can reveal the disturbing truth about regions of the EU where large proportions of under 25s have little prospect of getting a job, let alone being able to move out of the parental home and lead lives of their own.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

EU youth unemployment (15-24 years) by region

  • 50%+ : 2 regions
  • 40-50% : 10 regions
  • 30-40% : 17 regions
  • 20-30% : 44 regions
  • Summary : In 73 regions of the EU more than one in five young people are unemployed

[Source: Latest EU Commission statistics agency data for 2022.]

© EU Commission (Eurostat) 2023 - click to enlarge

The overall average rate masks the reality in huge regions of the EU

In parts of the Czech Republic, Germany and Hungary there is almost no youth unemployment. This has the effect of skewing the EU average rate of 11.3% and masking the reality for large numbers of young people across swathes of the EU.

It is only by looking at the detail that a serious problem emerges. This is not a post-Covid effect : we have been reporting on this for years. The situation is endemic and yet the EU Commission seems to have little interest.

Observations

The EU Commission is forever trying to project a positive image of the European Union to young people. It holds ‘youth consultation’ events and talks endlessly about its various youth programmes such as Erasmus+. It therefore seems a little odd that for years it has said almost nothing about long-term and catastrophic unemployment amongst an entire generation.

We are repeatedly told that young people in the United Kingdom favour rejoining the EU. When questioned they often refer to things such as the Erasmus programme for foreign study, even though hardly any of them actually used it when the UK was still a member country.

We understand the problem. The vast majority of school teachers and university lecturers voted Remain, so our young people have been indoctrinated for years. As we have reported previously, these educators used the hugely expensive Erasmus programme far more than did their students.

Unfortunately the various Remainer-Rejoiner organisations for young people have simply repeated platitudes without ever looking at the cold, hard facts. In this case, the simple reality is that life for young people in large parts of the EU offers little in the way of prospects for “a normal life”.

We recommend that those who continually influence the UK’s youth go and spend some time living in parts of Spain, France, Italy and Greece, and see how their students would like to try building a life there.

Something uplifting for our younger readership

We sometimes add a music video to our 'Observations' on a Sunday but we're breaking the rules today. Below is something from the States. We thought our younger readership might like this. Anyway, when the UK was a member country of the EU far more of you went to the US than to the EU to study.

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[ Sources: EU Commission ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Mon 05 June 2023

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