Across the European Union, people aged 15 to 25 are most likely to be unemployed.
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They are also much less likely to be employed full time for an employer compared with adults aged 26 to 60, according to Gallup World Poll data. These young adults are on the cusp of their careers, yet they aren't landing good jobs.
Gallup defines a good job as one with at least 30 hours per week with a consistent paycheck from an employer. In 2014, almost four in 10 adults aged 15 to 25 (39%) were not in the workforce, compared with almost two in 10 of those aged 26 to 60 (19%).
This difference largely reflects the high proportion of young people still in school. The percentage of the youngest adults in the EU who have a good job (26%) is less than half of those aged 26 to 60 (54%).
Though youth unemployment is a pressing issue for the EU as a whole, the severity of the unemployment problem varies from country to country. Germany had a relatively lower rate of youth unemployment (6%) compared with the EU as a whole (11%), according to 2014 Gallup World Poll data.
Spain has a much higher rate of unemployment among adults aged 15 to 25 (16%) than Germany and a lower proportion of workers who are employed at a job working at least 30 hours per week (17% in Spain, compared with 24% in Germany).
o combat youth unemployment, the European Commission has established the Youth Guarantee, a €21 billion annual program to ensure that people younger than age 25 get a quality, concrete offer - such as a job, continued education, apprenticeship or traineeship - within four months of them leaving formal education or becoming unemployed.
The estimated cost to establish the program within the Eurozone is 0.22% of GDP, but the estimated costs to provide benefits to unemployed youth and in lost earnings and taxes is €153 billion a year if the EU takes no action.
Finland provides a success story for what the Youth Guarantee program aims to accomplish. A Eurofound evaluation determined that in 2011, 83.5% of young job seekers received a successful offer within three months of unemployment in 2011, a result that met the target set by the Finnish government. ■