The Story of Misleading Rates and Omitted Demographic Changes. The Post-Crisis Youth Employment in 33 European Countries

Abstract

Literature review has shown that the demographic dimension of the labour market changes remains generally overlooked. The paper aims at filling the gap. The main question asked in the paper is: what are the long-term consequences of the crisis 2008-2009 for youth labour market in the European countries? In order to answer the question, the changes in youth employment to population ratio in 33 European countries are analysed. Any change in the employment to population ratio is a result of combined demographic and labour market effect. While the demographic changes vary between countries; it is argued that a crosscountry comparative analysis that does not take into account the role of demographic shifts is likely to provide a misleading picture of the labour market conditions.

Transition from education to work in Bulgaria, Czechia, Latvia and Poland: a comparative summary

“…Partly it was a result of the improving economic situation and partly demographic factors, which contributed to the lowering of labour market and education competition (European Commission 2021): as the number of young people declines they have better chances to participate in education, start careers later than the previous generations, and, as a result, are more easily integrated in the labour market. Generations of young people entering the labour markets in the four countries are smaller than the generations of older people leaving them (Michoń 2018(Michoń , 2019a(Michoń , 2019b. The changes in the population age structure appear to be positively related to young adults' unemployment (Biagi and Lucifora, 2008).…”

School-to-work transition in Poland: a false reality of numbers

“…At the same time, the number of jobs occupied by young people also decreased but significantly less. As a result, despite the reduction in the number of jobs, youth unemployment was decreasing (Michoń, 2018).…”