Youth Labour Market Prospects and Recent Policy Developments

Youth continue to face important labour market challenges today, often significantly greater than their adult counterparts. While unemployment rates have fallen in recent years, long-term unemployment remains persistently high as does the share of youth neither in employment nor in education or training. This raises concerns about the consequences of a prolonged joblessness among youth and the role of labour market policies in addressing these challenges. In this context, this chapter presents first, an overview of global youth labour market trends since the economic crisis, focusing on the developments in Europe. Second, the chapter examines the consequences of the current situation in Europe along several dimensions, notably the risk of detachment from the labour market and concerns about job quality. Finally, this chapter discusses valuable lessons learned on the effectiveness of youth labour market policies, using the European Youth Guarantee as a framework for the analysis of more specific measures.