Youth unemployment in Europe - canary in the coalmine

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By David Ruccio

Youth unemployment, according to Eurostat, is now over 21 percent—21.4 percent for the euro area and 22.1 percent for the European Union. 
The youth unemployment rate ranges from a low of roughly 7.5-8.5 percent (in the Netherlands, Austria, and Germany) to 30 percent (in Slovakia, Portugal, Lithunia, and Italy) and a high of 45 percent (in Greece and Spain).

The youth unemployment rate in the EU-27 was around twice as high as the rate for the total population throughout the last decade. The EU-27 youth unemployment rate was systematically higher than in the euro area between 2000 and early 2008; since this date, these two rates were very close (see also Figure 5), until mid 2010, when the EU-27 youth unemployment rate started to increase more strongly than that of the EA-17. While youth unemployment thus increased in both areas during the crisis, the increase has been more relevant for the EU-27, despite the lower overall unemployment rate in that area.

Meanwhile, the overall unemployment rates for Europe continue to climb—to 10.3 percent for the European Union and 11.1 percent for the nations of the euro area. This means that 24.868 million men and women in the European Union, including 17.561 million in the euro area, were unemployed in May 2012. Compared with a year ago, the unemployment rate fell in eight member states, increased in eighteen, and remained stable in one (Hungary).
Unemployment for workers young and old is becoming a larger and larger problem in the Second Great Depression in Europe. Article source here