Consequences Of High Youth Unemployment
Being young and unemployed can lead to increase in the risk of poverty, deskilling and social exclusion as well as cause loss of motivation and mental health problems. Fresh graduates lacking experience often find themselves trapped in a vicious cycle. They often lack the experience needed to fill a job opening, which prevents them from getting employed. Thus, the job-searching period for them becomes considerably longer than for experienced workers, which leads to gaps in employment history, loss of skills and productivity, and harms their future work prospects. Young people struggling to find permanent jobs are bound to accept temporary and intern positions. However, trainings and internships are not always considered by employers as “real” work experience and having them on your CV does not ease the process of finding work. Moreover, temporary jobs are less protected, often pay less, do not offer job-related training and social benefits. As a result, unemployed young people are more prone to poverty risk, lower wages and worst career opportunities.
Unemployment among young people could also leads to reduced level of happiness and mental health problems. Being employed is important for young people in order to feel accepted in the society, thus not having a job can cause economic, cultural and social isolation. Social exclusion, stress and employment worries can cause mental health problems, such as depression. Moreover, studies have found that youth unemployment is associated with increase in drug and alcohol use as well as higher levels of crime among young people.
Last but not least, high youth unemployment has a negative effect on economic growth and productivity. There is a risk of loss of talent and skills since a great amount of university graduates are unable to find a job and to put their knowledge and capabilities into producing innovation and contributing to economic growth. Moreover, having a large share of the young workforce unemployed, not only leads to reduced productivity and gross domestic product (GDP) but also increases the economic costs for the state, since there are more money to be paid on social benefits and less money coming in from taxes. A Eurofond survey conducted across 21 Member States showed that the cost of social welfare payments and the contribution to gross national product (GNP) that unemployed young people are unable to pay in 2009 amount to more than €100 billion.
