Youth unemployment

Media Statement: Prosus N.V. Summarised FAQs Regarding Its Voluntary Share Exchange Offer to Naspers Shareholders

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, May 19, 2021

Through Prosus, the group operates and invests globally in markets with long-term growth potential, building leading consumer internet companies that empower people and enrich communities.

Key Points: 
  • Through Prosus, the group operates and invests globally in markets with long-term growth potential, building leading consumer internet companies that empower people and enrich communities.
  • This is a R1.4 billion investment targeting early stage technology companies in South Africa that seek to address big societal needs.
  • To help address youth unemployment in impoverished communities, in 2019, Naspers launched Naspers Labs , a social impact programme for young, unemployed South Africans aged between 17 and 25.
  • Any forward-looking statement has not been reviewed nor reported on by Prosus\'s external auditor or any other expert.\nView source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210518006155/en/\n'

New Data Unearth Inequalities in Youth Employment Exacerbated by the COVID-19 Pandemic

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, April 15, 2021

As a result, young people, especially BIPOC youth, are particularly susceptible to the economic impacts of the pandemic," said Mathematica\'s Hande Inanc.

Key Points: 
  • As a result, young people, especially BIPOC youth, are particularly susceptible to the economic impacts of the pandemic," said Mathematica\'s Hande Inanc.
  • "The economic crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated existing inequality, which is why continuing to monitor youth unemployment closely will be important for creating equitable opportunities and well-paying jobs for youth moving forward.
  • Among Black male youth, Asian American male and female youth, and Hispanic male and female youth, unemployment remained around 20 percent until September.
  • However, youth unemployment rates in six statesHawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, and Washingtonremained at least 5 percentage points higher than before the pandemic.

Regions and cities call for more resources to fight youth unemployment in Europe

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, February 4, 2021

The pandemic

Key Points: 
  • The pandemic
    has caused a sharp rise in youth unemployment
    across the European Union.
  • Therefore, regions and
    cities ask to include youth employment measures in
    national recovery plans.
  • The rapporteur Romy Karier highlighted that "
    If they are listened to, regions and localities can
    make a major contribution to fight against youth
    unemployment.
  • It is in this perspective that we
    propose concrete and strong measures to reinforce
    the European Youth Guarantee.
  • Therefore, regions and cities
    regret that this provision, which existed in the
    original Youth Guarantee, has not been retained in the
    new proposal.
  • Background:
    The EU supports Member States in reducing youth
    unemployment and inactivity through the
    Youth Employment Support package
    , which is built around four strands.
  • Following a
    European Commission's proposal, the Council approved a
    recommendation
    on a
    reinforced Youth Guarantee
    last year.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the euro area labour market

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, January 7, 2021

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the euro area labour market Prepared by Robert Anderton, Vasco Botelho, Agostino Consolo, António Dias da Silva, Claudia Foroni, Matthias Mohr and Lara Vivian1 Introduction The euro area labour market has been severely hit by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and associated containment measures.

Key Points: 

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the euro area labour market


    Prepared by Robert Anderton, Vasco Botelho, Agostino Consolo, António Dias da Silva, Claudia Foroni, Matthias Mohr and Lara Vivian

1 Introduction

    • The euro area labour market has been severely hit by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and associated containment measures.
    • Unemployment increased more slowly and to a lesser extent, reflecting the high take-up rate of job retention schemes and transitions into inactivity.
    • The labour market adjustment occurred primarily via a strong decline in average hours worked.
    • Both labour supply and aggregate demand shocks help explain the decline in total hours worked.
    • [1] High-frequency indicators of labour demand and new hires help to shed light on the impact of the crisis on the labour market.
    • That changed with the pandemic and associated lockdowns, during which more than a third of Europeans began to telework.

2 Developments in employment, unemployment and hours worked

    • The COVID-19 pandemic led to the sharpest contraction on record in employment and total hours worked in the second quarter of 2020.
    • Both employment and hours worked recovered somewhat in the third quarter, but remained substantially below their levels in the fourth quarter of 2019.
    • Total hours worked changed substantially more than employment, and also more than GDP.
    • In the second quarter of 2020, the quarter most affected by the containment measures, total hours worked declined by 16.8% and average hours worked declined by 14.3% in annual terms (see Chart 1).
    • Box 1 describes the nature of the shocks affecting total hours worked and labour force participation.
    • By contrast, labour productivity per hour increased by 2.6% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2020, as hours worked dropped more than GDP (see Chart 1).
    • This dichotomy between productivity per person and per hour worked is more marked than in previous recessions and reflects the very high take-up rate of job retention schemes.
    • The reaction of the unemployment rate to the fall in activity was more muted than the reactions of employment and total hours worked.
    • Between February and October 2020, the unemployment rate in the euro area increased by only 1.2 percentage points to 8.4%, despite the large fall in employment.
    • [2] The labour force recovered substantially in the third quarter, but remains smaller than in the fourth quarter of 2019.
    • Chart 2 Unemployment rate and labour force participation rate in the euro area (left-hand scale: percentage points, quarter-on-quarter changes; right-hand scale: percentages)
    • The unemployment rate and total hours worked moved away from their long-term co-movements with GDP in the second quarter of 2020.
    • However, the unemployment rate has not increased relative to the second quarter of 2019, while total hours worked has decreased by more than would have been expected when looking at its long-term relationship with GDP.
    • Chart 3 Predictions based on the long-term relationship between selected labour market aggregates and GDP (unemployment rate, percentage points; employment and hours worked, percentages)
    • Box 1 Key drivers of labour market developments: an SVAR analysis Prepared by Claudia Foroni and Matthias Mohr This box assesses recent developments in total hours worked and the labour force in the euro area on the basis of a sign-restricted structural vector-autoregressive model (SVAR).
    • These shocks are unobservable and are identified by imposing restrictions on the direction in which the endogenous variables move in response to the impact of the shocks, as shown in Table A.
    • [4] Table A Restrictions imposed on the impact of shocks on endogenous variables
    • Such a shock would, in this context, also increase the demand for labour, so total hours worked would increase.
    • Chart A shows the cumulative effect of the identified shocks on the annual changes in total hours worked and the labour force up to the second quarter of 2020.
    • [6] On the supply side, labour supply and productivity shocks together are estimated to account for more than one-third of the total decline in hours worked.
    • The impact of a negative demand shock is estimated to account for about one-quarter of the decline in total hours worked in the second quarter.
    • The residual component is estimated to account for less than one-third of the decline in total hours worked.
    • Chart A Contributions of shocks to changes in total hours worked and the labour force in the euro area (annual percentage changes; percentage point contributions)
    • Between February and April 2020 around 25 million jobs were lost and the unemployment rate increased from 3.5% to 14.7% (see Chart A), with workers that were temporarily laid off accounting for 75% of the new unemployed.
    • [7] In the first six weeks of the shutdown around 30 million people applied for unemployment benefit, while 8 million workers left the labour force in March and April.
    • [8] Chart A (percentages of civilian labour force, seasonally adjusted)
    • One relevant aspect for understanding the increase in unemployment is its link to the decline in employment related to developments in labour force participation.
    • Chart B shows that in past recessions the bulk of the increase in unemployment was related to the decline in employment.
    • Hours worked per worker also showed a slightly more marked adjustment than in previous recessions (see Chart B).

3 Job retention schemes

    • Job retention schemes reached unprecedented levels in the first months after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and thus play an important role in explaining labour market developments in this period.
    • In the fourth quarter of 2020 the number of workers in job retention schemes is expected to increase in response to the new lockdown measures.
    • To put these numbers into perspective, in 2009 the average share of employees participating in short-time work schemes reached 3.2% in Germany, 0.8% in France, 3.3% in Italy and 1.0% in Spain.
    • [9] These schemes help to explain the adjustment in the labour market via average hours worked.
    • Chart 4 Share of employees on job retention schemes (percentages of employees)
    • The large number of workers on job retention schemes benefited from rapid policy responses to support the labour market during the early stages of the pandemic.
    • Job retention schemes featured prominently and were widely adopted across the euro area.
    • [10] Some countries introduced new short-time work schemes and others overhauled existing schemes by increasing their generosity, broadening eligibility and reducing the administrative burden of accessing the schemes.
    • [11] Job retention schemes help to keep employment stable in the short term, but it is important to design them in a way that limits undesirable effects.
    • [13] However, job retention schemes also entail some degree of deadweight losses (when they subsidise jobs that would not have been lost) and displacement effects (when they subsidise unviable jobs).
    • In addition, some countries adjusted the generosity of their job retention schemes when extending their duration after the first months of the pandemic.
    • The number of workers on job retention schemes, which has remained elevated since the start of the pandemic and peaked in the second quarter (see Chart 4 in the main text), played a decisive role in these developments, especially via the implications for hours worked per person.
    • Such schemes tend to have a downward effect on compensation per employee, as employees usually retain their employment status but face pay cuts when enrolling in these schemes.
    • The operation of government support measures complicates the assessment of underlying wage trends during the pandemic.
    • First, information on how much of the aggregate compensation and how many of the employees are attributable to job retention schemes requires detailed data on wage replacement rates and take-up rates, which are published only with a considerable time lag.
    • Second, the statistical recording can differ across countries.
    • While in most large euro area countries the benefits provided under the support schemes are paid directly to employees and are recorded as social transfers, in the Netherlands, for example, employers receive a subsidy to finance their payments to employees.
    • [18] This indicates that the decrease in the number of hours worked due to the COVID-19 crisis was not fully matched by a corresponding increase in firms costs, as in some cases firms received subsidies introduced by euro area governments to support job retention during the crisis.

4 Using high-frequency indicators to assess labour market developments

    • High-frequency indicators are a useful tool for gaining a timely understanding of labour market developments, particularly in periods of rapid and drastic changes in economic activity.
    • For example, Google Trends provides information about the interests of people using the Google search engine to search specific topics, such as job retention schemes and unemployment conditions.
    • Two other sources that can be used as a more direct measure of demand conditions in the labour market are Indeed job postings and the LinkedIn hiring rate.
    • These indicators are available well ahead of the publication of official labour market statistics and thus provide valuable timely information which can aid the early identification of changes in labour demand and job findings.
    • This indicator provides daily information on the level of interest of users in the labour market situation.
    • The hiring rate and job postings indicators provide further evidence of the strong impact of the pandemic on the labour market.
    • The LinkedIn hiring rate indicator is more closely related to job-to-job transitions and the job-finding rate, while the Indeed job postings indicator reflects developments in labour demand and may be regarded as an indicator of vacancies.
    • Both indicators declined sharply in March and April as the pandemic took hold and lockdown measures were implemented (see Chart 6).
    • Chart 6 High-frequency labour market indicators: hiring rate and job postings (year-on-year growth rates, percentages)

5 The impact of the crisis across countries, activity sectors, demographic groups and types of job

    • This section analyses differences in the impact of the pandemic across euro area countries and across activity sectors, as some sectors are more exposed to changes in demand patterns than others.
    • It also analyses the impact of the pandemic across demographic groups and types of employment contract.
    • In addition, the section discusses the adoption of teleworking during the pandemic and the potential for its further use.
    • The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the labour market is very negative and widespread across euro area countries.
    • Total hours worked declined in all main sectors in the euro area in the second quarter of 2020.
    • The extent of the decline was different across sectors, partly reflecting the strictness of the lockdown measures affecting each sector.
    • While job retention schemes have helped to stabilise employment, such policies may also hinder the efficient reallocation of workers across sectors.
    • Chart 8 Total hours worked and total employment in the euro area across sectors (quarter-on-quarter rates of change, percentages)
    • The decline in employment was strongest for temporary employees, the young and workers with low levels of education.
    • Likewise, young workers were disproportionately affected when compared to older workers.
    • Across contract types, employment decreased most for temporary employees (see Chart 9, panel b).
    • In line with the fall in employment, the youth unemployment rate increased significantly more than the overall unemployment rate (see Chart 9, panel c).
    • The COVID-19 crisis and related policies have resulted in the more widespread adoption of teleworking.
    • More than a third of workers in Europe began to telework as a result of the pandemic.
    • [24] This is likely to have supported employment and hours worked in some sectors and for some workers, in particular those with a high level of education.
    • Box 4 Teleworkable jobs Prepared by Colm Bates and Lara Vivian This box analyses teleworking patterns in the EU and the United Kingdom.
    • In the euro area, the share of teleworkable jobs is highest in the information and communication sector and lowest in agriculture.
    • [26] Chart A Share of annual earnings and employees in potentially teleworkable jobs in the euro area by sector (percentages)
    • Similarly, the share of workers who work from home either regularly or occasionally varies substantially across regions.
    • As many as 70% of potential teleworkers report working from home in Stockholm, while this share is around 45% in Paris and London.
    • On the other hand, less than 10% of potential teleworkers engage in remote working in Italy.
    • [27] Figure A Share of potential teleworkers who work from home at least sometimes across EU regions

6 Concluding remarks

Vincotech Donates €12,000 to Youth Project in Bolivia

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, December 16, 2020

The youth unemployment rate in Bolivia is high with 30 percent of 20-to-24-year-olds lacking any sort of gainful employment.

Key Points: 
  • The youth unemployment rate in Bolivia is high with 30 percent of 20-to-24-year-olds lacking any sort of gainful employment.
  • Young women are likely to have fewer educational and job opportunities, which are particularly scarce in rural regions.
  • This project affords this younger generation, and women especially, the opportunity to acquire marketable job skills and set up businesses of their own.
  • This is why Vincotech is very happy to be supporting Plan International Germanys initiative to help these young people to a brighter future.

CPABC: Despite recent gains, COVID-19 continues to displace over 100,000 workers across B.C.

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, November 4, 2020

For much of the pandemic, job losses were concentrated in the service sector due to its strong reliance on tourism/travel, office services, and close physical interaction.

Key Points: 
  • For much of the pandemic, job losses were concentrated in the service sector due to its strong reliance on tourism/travel, office services, and close physical interaction.
  • Much was initially propelled by government support, such as the wage subsidy, and the reopening of businesses over the summer.
  • Amongst the findings:
    Youth unemployment rate (aged 15-24) hit 22.6 per cent in August, two-and-a-half times higher than last year.
  • CPAs are recognized internationally for bringing superior financial expertise, strategic thinking, business insight, and leadership to organizations.

Reinforcing the Youth Guarantee: the Council adopts a recommendation for more inclusive measures to boost youth employment

Retrieved on: 
Saturday, October 31, 2020

Today, the Council adopted by unanimity a Recommendation on 'A Bridge to Jobs Reinforcing the Youth Guarantee'.

Key Points: 
  • Today, the Council adopted by unanimity a Recommendation on 'A Bridge to Jobs Reinforcing the Youth Guarantee'.
  • The main aim is to better support youth employment across the EU, in particular during the COVID-19 pandemic, which is bringing back high youth unemployment rates and increasing the number of young people not in employment, education or training (NEETs).
  • The Recovery and Resilience Facility and REACT-EU will provide additional Union funding for youth employment measures.
  • Background

    The new recommendation replaces the Council Recommendation of 22 April 2013 on establishing a Youth Guarantee.

Press release - Parliament calls on member states to fully exploit the European Youth Guarantee

Retrieved on: 
Friday, October 9, 2020

With the youth unemployment rate at 17.6% in the EU in August 2020 (up from 14.9% before the COVID-19 crisis) and expected to continue rising, Parliament calls for more funds to strengthen the Youth Guarantee scheme for 2021-2027.

Key Points: 
  • With the youth unemployment rate at 17.6% in the EU in August 2020 (up from 14.9% before the COVID-19 crisis) and expected to continue rising, Parliament calls for more funds to strengthen the Youth Guarantee scheme for 2021-2027.
  • Any discrimination experienced by young people on any grounds must be actively combatted in Youth Guarantee schemes, they say.
  • Binding instrument

    MEPs deplore the voluntary nature of the Youth Guarantee (currently a Council recommendation) and call on the Commission to propose a Youth Guarantee instrument that is binding for all member states.

  • Reinforcing the Youth Guarantee contributes significantly to the ongoing implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights.

Harvard Graduate Who Studied with Kerosene Lanterns in Rural Africa Launches Company to Give Back

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, September 3, 2020

Many other kids, from similar backgrounds, have been successful, because of effective support systems."

Key Points: 
  • Many other kids, from similar backgrounds, have been successful, because of effective support systems."
  • "My journey has taken me to about 24 countries on 4 continents.
  • Experts fear a time bomb, describing it as a looming major humanitarian crisis, because of massive youth unemployment, as governments in Africa struggle to provide jobs for young people.
  • There are fears of violence, and exacerbated mass migrations across the Mediterranean and the West for greener pastures.

Article - Covid-19: how the EU fights youth unemployment

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, July 15, 2020

In a resolution on EU Employment Guidelines adopted on 10 July, MEPs called for a revision of the forthcoming guidelines in light of the Covid-19 outbreak, underlining the need to tackle youth unemployment through a reinforced Youth Guarantee.

Key Points: 
  • In a resolution on EU Employment Guidelines adopted on 10 July, MEPs called for a revision of the forthcoming guidelines in light of the Covid-19 outbreak, underlining the need to tackle youth unemployment through a reinforced Youth Guarantee.
  • In July Parliament also backed an increase in the budget for the Youth Employment Initiative, the main budgetary instrument for Youth Guarantee schemes in EU countries, to 145 million for 2020.
  • Parliament called for a significant increase in funding for the implementation of the Youth Employment Initiative in a resolution on the EU's next long-term budget adopted in 2018.
  • MEPs liked how the initiative has supported young people, but said improvements are needed, including an extension of the age limit and the setting of clear quality criteria and labour standards.