The austerity measures as proposed by some political sectors within the European Union remind me of current imbalances within the demographic and social strata. The price common people had to pay in the last years due to economic and financial mismanagement was quite significant.
Some lost their jobs due to the structural changes within their companies whilst others had to lower their consumption levels due to higher marginal rates of taxes imposed by European countries. The current generation of youngsters and workers have to pay for the lack of well-defined strategies and in some cases misappropriation of public funds.
The structural imbalances have created situations whereby the consumption price increases far outweigh the cost of employment. Thus workers purchasing power have diminished overtime. This has created a new working class with lower consumption levels whilst standard of living has been altered.
Reversing this phenomenon takes time. And surely so it will take some time before the lost generation will again integrate themselves and feel comfortable in the market economy again.
As a result of demographic changes within the European Union the overall workforce is shrinking and a smaller workforce has to sustain a growing number of dependants. The European Union must increase employment rates to support the unfavourable social conditions such as phenomenal unemployment rates amongst the youth and to sustain the looming pension crises.
Key labour market policies have been proposed in the Europe 2020 strategy targets by the European Commission to increase the labour market participation rate of 75% for women and men aged 20 to 64 by 2020.
It is interesting to note that although Malta has been classified as a country where previous strategies vis a vis this employment target were not ambitious enough, it is expected that as a nation state we will reach the required targets given national commitments and projected population figures.
Statistics from the European Union statistics arm the Euro stat indicate that Malta’s unemployment rates for young men aged 20-29 bracket in 2012 stands at 5.4 per cent whilst that for women stands at 4.8 percent. One of the lowest rates compared to let’s say Portugal and Spain with unemployment rates of 17.6 and 29.3 percentage respectively.
Although Malta has one of the lowest youth unemployment rate of the percentage of population aged less than 25 years of 14.2 percentages this is still considerable. This might indicate that we need substantial effort to ensure that these youngsters will be integrated in the labour market.
Decision makers within this sphere needs to ensure that future generations have access to at least the standards of living as enjoyed by their forefathers. The interplay between high unemployment rates and low employment generation is unacceptable and unsustainable.
What can be done?
The Socialists and Democrats (S&D) initially came up with the idea of creating the European Youth Guarantee which pledges that youths are offered jobs, education and/or training.
When addressing the Party of European Socialists Council in Sofia, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat emphasised: ‘’We will stand side by side to make the best out of the European Guarantee, which we have supported since its beginning, while looking forward to staying one step ahead on innovative policymaking.’’
Moreover he adds: ‘’we are doing this not for ourselves because the average rate of youth unemployment in Malta is lower but we are doing it cause we believe in this initiative.’’
This shows how our Prime Minister is not just a salesman as some has claimed to be but a statesman in the making. Malta needs a combination of a good salesman which is able to promote the island as a hub for investment embodied with a high level of human capital whilst at the same time being a statesman having the right social qualities to ascertain that nobody is left behind.
The Commission’s Youth Employment Package includes proposed recommendations to member states to introduce the Youth Guarantee. Young people up to age 25 shall receive a quality offer of a job, continued education, an apprenticeship or a traineeship within four months of leaving formal education or becoming unemployed.
The package includes further recommendations to member states to make use of the European Social Fund and to establish strong partnerships between employers and unemployment agencies amongst others to be supportive of this initiative. The current government is committed to address this imbalance. The allocation of 1.9Million from the European Social Fund to alleviate unemployment levels in Gozo is a positive initiative in the right direction. These are the kind of strategies that address the root of the problem. Youths deserve better.
Clint Camilleri is contesting the 2014 EP elections on the PL ticket