Abstract

The paper aims to assess the relative importance of participation and unemployment and the interaction between them in affecting the evolution of employment rates of young graduates in selected European countries. The Taylor formula is used to read the behaviour of employment rates in terms of movements in activity and unemployment rates. Using this analytical procedure, the comparison between the selected countries underscores two aspects in particular: the progressive isolation of Italy, due to the poor results of the reform of the higher education system at the end of the 1990s, and the widespread progress within the female segments. On a more general plane, the heterogeneity of European labour markets for young graduates assumes new characteristics in the decade but—it is argued—it remains significant. The relative importance of participation and unemployment, the impact of the reforms of the higher education system, the reaction to the crisis of the late 2000s, and the gender aspects sharply differentiate the evolution of young graduate employment in the individual countries.

Highlights

  • Matching the demand for and supply of labour generally presents more difficulties for the youth segments of the labour force

  • At the end of the decade, unemployment is over 20 percent in both gender segments, but even if the unemployment rate were to fall to zero, while the activity rate remained constant at the 2010 level, the male employment rate would increase by only 6.4 percentage points and would reach just 28%!

  • The paper has sought to assess the relative importance of participation and unemployment and the interaction between them in affecting the evolution of employment rates of young graduates in selected European countries

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Summary

Introduction

Matching the demand for and supply of labour generally presents more difficulties for the youth segments of the labour force. Delayed entry into the labour markets in turn contributes, albeit to very differing extents, to generally lower employment rates for young people than those for more central age groups. P. POTESTIO bour force, young graduates aged 20 - 24 and 25 - 29, and to analyze the evolution of their employment rates in the decade from 2000 to 2010 in six (rather similar in many respects) European countries: Belgium, Germany, Spain, France, Italy and the United Kingdom. The first is the progressive isolation of Italy, the particular declines it has experienced in young graduate employment in both age groups, and the connection with the Italian reform of the higher education system. Score the rather different characteristics of the evolution of employment rates of young graduates in our selected countries.

European Employment Rates
The Evolution of Employment Rates: A Geometrical Representation
Graduates Aged 20 - 24
Graduates Aged 25 - 29
Findings
Conclusions

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