Germany and France announced plans to tackle the mass youth unemployment gripping southern Europe with a “New Deal”.
Under the plans, 6 bn euros from the European Investment Bank will help encourage job creation at small and medium sized businesses, after the eurozone debt crisis has left many SME’s struggling to borrow money from banks.
The deal will also pay for language courses and fund jobseekers’ flights around the continent in search of work.
Nearly one in four young people in the eurozone is out of work – with that figure rising to more than half in Greece and Spain.
The hope is that the “New Deal” will curb the mounting anger that is threatening the eurozone partnership.
We haven’t felt the same levels of frustration in the UK, even though youth unemployment recently reached almost 1 million, with more than half claiming benefits.
But this is not to say that the UK youth doesn’t have the same concerns. A striking issue, for example, is the amount of unemployed new graduates. It’s commonly known that graduates, whether moving on from a postgraduate or undergraduate degree, are expected to apply for unpaid internships, traineeships or minimally funded graduate programmes. Read more
