Young and struggling in the job market: what is the EU doing about that?
Recent times have certainly been hard for young Europeans who are trying to get into the job market. But even before the pandemic, life has never been that easy in a lot of European countries for young generations facing the labour market for the first time.
The European Union has been fighting actively, especially in the last decade, to turn the tide and implement opportunities for young Europeans.
If we look back to April 2013, the Council of the European Union issued a Recommendation containing the proposal for the implementation of the Youth Guarantee. It was devised as a significant tool to ensure that all young Europeans under 25 received the necessary support to find employment or a traineeship within four months from completing a formal education or holding a job position. For the first time, the European Union was working to ensure young people a brighter future within the borders of member States. There is no doubt that the Youth Guarantee played a role in better integration of young people in the labour market: 2,4 million youths in Europe received direct support thanks to this initiative. The unemployment rate of the youngest decreased from 24% in 2013 to around 14% in 2019.
Focusing on the traineeships area, we can say that the attitude towards this tool to introduce young graduates from high schools and colleges drastically changed in the last years. Meant to facilitate the transition into the labour market, they were seen as a valuable way to gain concrete experience and to result more appealing to future employers. The traineeships which are part of active market labour policies are generally regulated by specific national acts that determine the content, duration, right to social protection and compensation levels. On the other side, risks connected to open-market traineeships -promoted by employees themselves, are evident: regulation is weak or absent at all. They are more likely to end up in low quality or inexistent learning content, low or inexistent retribution, poor working conditions.
The spread of COVID-19, with all the economic and social implications, led to a dramatic increase in youth unemployment in the European member States and brought to light the fact that traineeships are in need of stronger regulation in order to not become an accepted form of exploitation of young people trying to build their future. Numbers are alarming: in August 2020 the youth unemployment rate in the European Union reached 17,6%. In the same period, back in 2019, the percentage was 14,6; January 2020, just before the threat of the virus, registered 14,7% unemployment rate. This July, the situation led the European Commission to release a communication concerning Youth Employment Support. At the bottom of this document lays the awareness that this is the time for European institutions and the Member States to turn their attention to the generations that will shape the Europe of the next decades. The main proposals for the implementation of the Youth Guarantee concern support to diversity and inclusiveness, the broadening of age for targeted people to 29 years old, implementation of job creation measures. Bringing the maximum age to benefit the Youth Guarantee up to 29 is significant: it is a sign of the real interest of European institutions in the matter and of the ability to adapt measures to the challenges of the historical moment.
What could be called a milestone in the future of young Europeans and access to the labour market will surely be the motion for a resolution promoted by the European Parliament in October 2020. The EP is well aware of the importance of the Youth Guarantee and of its positive effects towards young Europeans since its establishment in 2013; at the same time, it recognizes that the implementation at the national level has not been uniform between the various Member States. The pandemic is leading to economic and social side effects unprecedented in the other recent crises Europe has faced. These conditions have once again brought about the structural problem of unpaid and unregulated traineeships that are widespread in a lot of member States and are used to exploit the labour force of youngsters facing the job market right after graduation. To respond to this backsliding the European Commission is willing to implement the Youth Guarantee in order to make it a truly effective tool to access the labour market. Moreover, the aim is to make this instrument with all its regulations binding for all Member States: this would mean the warranty that the rights of young workers would be guaranteed and respected.
Once again, the topic of apprenticeships and traineeships covers a relevant space. In the resolution of October 2020, the European Parliament calls for the ban of unpaid traineeships and for stronger regulation in all member States. In order to ensure the value of internship periods, employers should provide written contracts where all the conditions are stated: tasks to be performed and remuneration above all. Already existing tools such as the Quality Framework for Traineeships should be revised in order to guarantee young people their rights and an effective transition to stable work after a period of training or apprenticeship.
Young Europeans represent the future. Among the majority the European feeling is strong. In such a delicate moment knowing that European institutions are working to grant them working rights and their future careers have great importance. The hope is to not read and hear any more stories about graduates struggling to get a dignified traineeship with dignified rights and economic compensation.
