The global recession has caused unemployment rates to rise almost everywhere, and for almost every group. But it was particularly hard on young people, whose unemployment rates rose much faster than those of adults。
Just how badly young people were affected appears to have depended partly on how severe the local downturn was and partly on local labor practices and laws. Some of the hardest-hit young people were in countries with the most protections for older workers。
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which includes 29 mostly rich countries, released a study this week of youth unemployment in advance of a meeting of labor ministers from the Group of 20 countries, scheduled for Monday in Washington. "There are currently nearly 15 million youth unemployed in the O.E.C.D. area, about four million more than at the end of 2007," stated the study。
The largest unemployment rate for young people — defined as ages 15 to 24 in most countries and 16 to 24 in others — was in Spain, where in the final quarter of last year the unemployment rate was 39.6 percent, more than double the 19.1 percent of two years earlier. For adults, the rate rose to 16.9 percent from 7.4 percent. Spain, like many European countries, provides protection for those with permanent jobs, a fact that led some employers to expand the use of temporary jobs, which provide fewer benefits. "Most of the job losses were recorded among workers on temporary jobs, many of whom are youth," the study stated。
The exception to the trend was in Germany, where unemployment among young people actually declined, to 10.3 percent, over the two-year period. The study attributed that in part to "a rather successful apprenticeship system that ensures a relatively smooth transition from school to work for most youth."
"For disadvantaged youth lacking basic education, a failure in their first experience on the labor market is often difficult to make up and may expose them to long-lasting scarring effects."