The European Social Fund: the Case for Investing in Youth Employment
The youth unemployment rate and the rate of young people not in employment, education or training (NEET) in the European Union have decreased since the height of the global financial crisis, and this is in part due to the positive impact of the implementation of youth employment programmes, such as the Youth Guarantee.
Still, the youth unemployment rate (15-24 years old) remains twice as high as the overall unemployment rate: almost 3 million young people are unemployed in the EU. The NEET rate (15-29 years old) has remained somewhat stagnant at approximately 11% since 2023. At the same time, the transition from education to the labour market is getting longer, more complex, and less straightforward.
Read the paper to find out the European Social Fund's impact and how as we move into the new budget cycle of the European Union post-2027 we will have to contend with not just the long-standing challenges that are intensifying, but also the emerging challenges that, together, are testing the limits of our societies.
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