Why is there so much unemployment in Europe today?
How can we avoid this in the future?
In the last years unemployment has increased in Europe, especially that of the young, with a really worrying rhythm. According to Eurostat, the Office for Statistics of the EU, nowadays more than 26 million people are unemployed in the EU, of whom 19 million in the Eurozone. In one year their number has increased of 1,8 million. In particular, Italy has a rate of unemployment of 11,6%, as in these years the rate of employment has fallen down dramatically, reaching 60% , much worse than 70% in 2007.
The causes for this are to be to found in the economic crisis that has undermined the western countries in the past 5 years. Some countries like Britain, Germany, Austria, have succeeded in overcoming the crisis; other countries, above all Eastern countries, have taken advantage from such a situation; others, like Italy, are still fighting to overcome it.
Italian economy is based on small and medium enterprises that, owing to the crisis, have stopped employing people; in addition, high taxation and delayed retirement limits have worsened the problem. The first victims of the crisis are young people, who often leave our country to find a job abroad, or accept irregular jobs or, what is worse, join criminal gangs to earn what we call 'easy money'. Social problems are tightly linked to economic ones: the government keeps spending money for the education and training of people who will often have to find a job abroad, thus enriching other countries and not their own. Moreover, foreign countries and foreign investors invest less in Italy as they consider our market partly unreliable. Last but not least, if the average citizen earns less, he will spend less and will cause a fall of expenditure. As to the banks, they are reluctant to lend money both to private citizens and to companies.
One could say that when an ant wants to eat, it will stand in a line waiting for its turn to have a bread crumb, but if there is nothing left the ant won't eat. The economic crisis is most of all a crisis of human resources. Most young people keep looking for a job, and often follow the path of those who were before them, without looking for their own identity and promoting their own ideas. They are like the ants, hoping that there will be a crumb also for them.
Quite often, nobody dares to leave the line in search for a new piece of crumb. Nobody seems to think of himself as of the beginner of a new line. This is wrong, the first thing to do is find our own potentiality, our own resources, and try to develop strategies to face the crisis. Facing the crisis basically means facing the anxiety, fear and anguish for the future
A fundamental first step to stop unemployment should come from the Government with a good incentive plan and a reduction of certain taxes in order to encourage the enterprises to increase the number of their employees and to stop the process of offshoring (the relocation of the operational processes to other countries where the cost of labour and the taxes are inferior) that has characterized the last decades.
Giovanni, 17
How can we avoid this in the future?
In the last years unemployment has increased in Europe, especially that of the young, with a really worrying rhythm. According to Eurostat, the Office for Statistics of the EU, nowadays more than 26 million people are unemployed in the EU, of whom 19 million in the Eurozone. In one year their number has increased of 1,8 million. In particular, Italy has a rate of unemployment of 11,6%, as in these years the rate of employment has fallen down dramatically, reaching 60% , much worse than 70% in 2007.
The causes for this are to be to found in the economic crisis that has undermined the western countries in the past 5 years. Some countries like Britain, Germany, Austria, have succeeded in overcoming the crisis; other countries, above all Eastern countries, have taken advantage from such a situation; others, like Italy, are still fighting to overcome it.
Italian economy is based on small and medium enterprises that, owing to the crisis, have stopped employing people; in addition, high taxation and delayed retirement limits have worsened the problem. The first victims of the crisis are young people, who often leave our country to find a job abroad, or accept irregular jobs or, what is worse, join criminal gangs to earn what we call 'easy money'. Social problems are tightly linked to economic ones: the government keeps spending money for the education and training of people who will often have to find a job abroad, thus enriching other countries and not their own. Moreover, foreign countries and foreign investors invest less in Italy as they consider our market partly unreliable. Last but not least, if the average citizen earns less, he will spend less and will cause a fall of expenditure. As to the banks, they are reluctant to lend money both to private citizens and to companies.
One could say that when an ant wants to eat, it will stand in a line waiting for its turn to have a bread crumb, but if there is nothing left the ant won't eat. The economic crisis is most of all a crisis of human resources. Most young people keep looking for a job, and often follow the path of those who were before them, without looking for their own identity and promoting their own ideas. They are like the ants, hoping that there will be a crumb also for them.
Quite often, nobody dares to leave the line in search for a new piece of crumb. Nobody seems to think of himself as of the beginner of a new line. This is wrong, the first thing to do is find our own potentiality, our own resources, and try to develop strategies to face the crisis. Facing the crisis basically means facing the anxiety, fear and anguish for the future
A fundamental first step to stop unemployment should come from the Government with a good incentive plan and a reduction of certain taxes in order to encourage the enterprises to increase the number of their employees and to stop the process of offshoring (the relocation of the operational processes to other countries where the cost of labour and the taxes are inferior) that has characterized the last decades.
Giovanni, 17