Growing unemployment

Levels of unemployment in the European Union remain very high and in the majority of member states the situation of the labour market shows no signs of improving. World financial instability, transformed into full-blown economic crisis two years ago, is inevitably reflected on employment data, with negative repercussions especially on the more exposed nations, less developed and peripheral regions and the young.A continental problem. In recent days Eurostat published its figures for the levels of unemployment in the EU, which have now risen on average to 10.1% in the euro zone. In the EU27, on the other hand, the average percentage is slightly lower: 9.6% (figures for September 2010). According to the estimates of the EU statistics office, persons without work rose to 23,109,000 throughout the EU (just under 16 million in the euro zone alone). At the national level, Holland (4.4%) and Austria (4.5%) confirm the lowest levels, while the most worrying situations were once again those registered in Spain (20.8%), Latvia (19.4), Estonia and Lithuania. But unemployment is above the EU average also in Bulgaria, Portugal, Hungary, Greece, Ireland and Slovakia. In Germany the figure is 6.7%, in France 10.0%, in the UK 7.7%, in Italy 8.3% and in Poland 9.6%. Some countries have registered a slight contraction of unemployment over Eurostat’s last survey (including Germany, Austria, Hungary), while the labour market has deteriorated in the Baltic Republics and in Greece. Analyzing the data in the medium and long term, it seems clear that the loss of jobs is due directly to the recession: the lowest levels of unemployment had in fact been ascertained between the end of 2007 and the first half of 2008: then the arrival in Europe of the crisis generated in the USA (summer of 2008) soon led to growing redundancies, the slimming down of the workforce and other similar provisions by European businesses now in growing difficulty. Eurostat also registers a growth in female unemployment: 9.6% in the EU27. Youth unemployment has further deteriorated: in the EU27 it now stands at 20.3%. Territorial imbalances. “Unemployment rates at the regional level show sharp disparities in the EU”: this is a further aspect underlined by Eurostat, which has analyzed the unemployment situation in the 271 territories (or regions) into which EU states are administratively subdivided. The most contained figure is that registered, as before, in the Dutch region of Zeeland, with 2.1% without work; at the opposite end of the scale, unemployment has risen to 27.1% in the French overseas département of Réunion. In 2009 – year of reference – out of 271 regions, some thirty had an unemployment rate around 4.0%; they include 11 of the 12 regions in the Netherlands, 5 regions in Austria, 3 in Italy, 2 in Belgium, Czech Republic and Germany, and respectively one region in Bulgaria, Romania and the UK. At the other end of the spectrum, 13 regions registered an unemployment rate of around 18.0%; they include 9 Spanish regions and four French overseas départements. But the disparities are accentuated if the tables concerning female and youth unemployment are analyzed. In the former case unemployment varies between regions with unemployment rates of around 3% (countries of central and northern Europe) and 33.6% (Melilla, Spain). As for youth unemployment, the most contained figure is once again that registered in the Dutch region of Zeeland (4% unemployed); the worst rates, instead, are registered in regions where it has risen to over 38%; that’s the case in 4 areas in Southern Italy, 5 in Spain and three overseas French département (negative record: Guadalupe 59,3%).Work and family needs. Also in recent days the European Commission has published a study arguing that “both firms and employees derive advantages from a flexible organization of work”. The report (“Flexible working time arrangements and gender equality”), drawn up by a group of experts chosen by the Executive, provides a snapshot of current practices in the 27 member states, as well as Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. Highly detailed in its analysis, the report examines the duration of the working day and working week (full time, part time) and the organization of hours of work (fixed, flexible) in the EU. It has been welcomed by Viviane Reding, Vice-President of the Commission, who commented: “Flexible hours of work, care structures for children and other persons in need and the right to family leave tend to increase employment rates both for men and for women and permit more sustainable birth rates to be achieved”. In a period of slowdown of the economy, an organization of work that is more flexible and more attentive to domestic needs “can help people to keep their jobs. We must continue the progress already made to make the structures of the labour market more favourable to families”.