Europe's Austerity Programme Spawns ‘Lost Generation’
The recent dramatic rise of youth unemployment across Europe — particularly in the Mediterranean member countries of the Eurozone most affected by the sovereign debt crisis and so- called ‘remedial’ austerity programmes — indicates that the continent is sacrificing its future on the altar of short-term budget consolidation.
According to official figures, the unemployment rate affecting people under 25 years of age has reached 50 percent in Spain, 48 percent in Greece, 35 percent in Portugal, and 31 percent in Italy. Youth unemployment is also high in Ireland (30 percent), France (23 per cent), and Britain (22 percent).
On average, 25 percent of European's youth labour force is unemployed and yet another 25 percent only has a precarious, low paid job, even though most of unemployed young people possess high educational qualifications, including university diplomas.
In all these countries affected by high sovereign debt and economic recession, conservative governments have imposed drastic cuts in public spending, reduced social welfare programmes and pensions and increased taxes, especially those paid by consumers, among other austerity measures.
These programmes have deepened economic slumps and fiscal difficulties across Europe. As the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) announced on Mar. 29 in its more recent econo mic assessment for the G7, the seven most industrialised countries of the world, 'Our forecast for the first half of 2012 points to robust growth in the United States and Canada, but much weaker activity in Europe, where the outlook remains fragile.'
'We may have stepped back from the edge of the cliff,' the OECD’s chief economist Pier Carlo Padoan cautioned, 'but there’s still no room for complacency.' Padoan also warned that the eurozone’s three largest economies - Germany, France and Italy — may have shrunk by an average of 0.4 percent during the first quarter of the year.
The German economy already suffered a slowdown of 0.2 percent during the last quarter of 2011. Given the OECD forecast, such figures suggest that even Germany, the last standing economic powerhouse in an otherwise lethargic continent, might have fallen into recession — experiencing a negative growth rate for two consecutive quarters.
To confirm the crisis, the European Commission’s office for youth announced that youth unemployment across the continent went up to 5.5 million in January 2012, a 37.7 percent growth rate since the spring of 2008, at the beginning of the global financial crisis. Other sources put this youth unemployment growth at a staggering 48 percent since 2008.
The office said that 'Overall, young people account for one- fifth (21.3 percent) of the total increase in unemployment since 2008' in the EU. Small wonder then that social scientists and politicians across the continent are talking about 'a lost generation'.
© Inter Press Service (2012) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service