La recette de l’Allemagne contre le chômage des jeunes

Infographie : François Descheemaekere

Germany's youth unemployment recipe

[Deutsche Welle]

Good training is a key to entering the work force. So why do many European countries have such high youth unemployment rates despite graduating many well-trained people? And why is Germany different?

Dr. Hilmar Schneider is Director of Labor Policy at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). His most important publications cover the labor market effects of replacement wages, the labor market perspectives of East Germany, the efficiency of active labor policy in the transformation process, and the welfare state perspectives of Europe. 

It is not especially surprising that the unemployment rate of young people in most countries is higher than general unemployment. But what stands out is how those rates compare across European countries. In countries like Spain, where youth unemployment was traditionally very high, it has skyrocketed to above 40 percent in the wake of the financial crisis. In Germany, using the same method of calculation, the rate is around 10 percent and appears to have little to do with the economic crisis. It also stands out that youth unemployment tends especially high in countries with the tightest restrictions in place on the job market. In places that offer workers strong protection against being fired, young people find it especially hard to gain a foothold in the work force.
As long as they remain a blank slate in terms of work experience, few employers are willing to take a chance on letting in a bad employee who will be difficult to fire. Those facts raise a clear question. Germany has a strongly regulated job market, so why is its youth unemployment so much lower than elsewhere?
Lire : dw.de