Introduction

For quite some time youth unemployment has been a much-debated issue in the European Union. Although long-term unemployment brings the risk of economic and social marginalisation for everyone who is affected by it, the idea that young people, who are only beginning their transition to adulthood, can become marginalised in the labour market is particularly disturbing. In the five European countries that are included in this chapter, rates of youth unemployment are above general unemployment rates in all cases, and are twice the general figure in the majority of cases (Finland, Sweden, Scotland, Spain and Germany). Young Spaniards are one of the most seriously affected groups, with 23.1% of them unemployed – that is, more than double the percentage of the general unemployed population in Spain. In the Scandinavian countries too, youth unemployment rates are twice as high as those in the general population. Thus, 11.4% of young Swedes are jobless, while the figure for Finland is 21.7%. The UK also has a youth unemployment rate (12.3%) of more than double the figure for the general population. Only in Germany are the youth and general jobless figures similar, at 9.8% and 8.9%, respectively (see Table 0.1).

We have chosen these five countries as the object of study because they can be considered representative of the different European regions to which they belong, and of the different welfare models, which will inevitably influence unemployment rates. Thus, Finland and Sweden represent the social democratic welfare state model, according to the typology developed by Esping-Andersen (1999a), with a generous system of assistance for young people. The two countries differ, however, in their levels of youth unemployment. The liberal model, characteristic of Britain, is more stimulating for the private sector, though it also has a stable system of state benefits, albeit less extensive than that of the social democratic model. Germany represents what Esping-Andersen calls the continental type of welfare states, which focuses on the income protection of those who are included in the labour force, but does not extend this protection to the same extent to new entrants.