Youth Policies and Unemployment in Europe

The situation of young people in Europe has been significantly impacted by recent changes that have taken place in the job market. Young people’s life trajectories and transitions to adulthood are increasingly less linear, more segmented, and more reversible, with a rise in unemployment and the NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) phenomenon. This book aims to investigate the youth policies implemented in Europe and how they are integrated in the socio-economic contexts of the various member states and their welfare regimes, educational systems, and skills markets.

A significant number of young adults neither study nor work, and live in a constant state of discouragement and inactivity, giving up on their search for job opportunities. The strategic choices implemented at the European level in response to this problem promote ALMPs (Active Labour Market Policies), including the creation of the Youth Guarantee Program, which is examined here both at the European level and, specifically, in the Italian context.

Paola Giannoni is a Ph.D. student in Sociology at the Department of Educational Sciences, University of Genoa, Italy. She is an expert in the design and evaluation of social and educational policies.