Why is unemployment among young people so high?

This book sets out to examine the effects of the Great Recession on youth employment and the rising and varied rates of youth joblessness across Europe. In countries hit hardest by the recession, young people have faced some of the largest obstacles in finding stable employment, or any kind of economic activity.

Even in countries with a better record of getting young people into work, there were still significant pockets of youth disadvantage, often categorised as those not in employment, education or training (NEETs), who struggled to make successful and sustainable transitions into employment. Yong women are frequently at greater risk of this precarious NEET status. Although, this is not altogether a new feature of European labour markets, the Great Recession exacerbated these problems, and in some cases even reversed previous successes.