Unemployment rate in Europe is at 6.8%. Spain and Greece are the only countries above 10% with 15.2% and 19.1% respectively. Both countroes have been hit hard by the 2008 financial crisis, especially Greece got screwed by everyone.

Major countries close to 10% are Italy and France with 9.7% and 9.3%. That, obviously, is not good. The country that surprised me was Germany with 3.4%. No idea why this is not celebrated more, I wasn't aware of that number until now and I live in Germany.

What is worrying so is youth unemployment of people between 15 and 24. It is roughly twice as high as the rates mentioned above, in Italy even three times as high. I considee that to be extremely dangerous for a society.

There are several ways to cut it and I admit I made a sweeping statement. There is high variation with youth and country as you mention correctly, but in all ways it has a higher level of unemployment. And I concurr, the really high youth unemployment is going to be a wreck: these people will get to later ages with no savings, no investment and lower skills.

Your post made me want to go deeper in german and came across an interesting bit: german has a very low minimum wage, and also some antics around the lower eschelons. https://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-German-unemployment-rate-co....

Yes, the points in the Quora-link are valid. Also something everyone with an extreme political position is using to dismiss the official unemployment rate.

That bein said, this is a terrible thing to do to people if you ask me. And maybe not doing it and having higher unemployment would be more humane. But I'm no eypeet, just a guy with an opinion.

Also, out of experience, in Germany you are not officially unemployed if you are in a training program sponsored by your oocal unemployment agency. Also a nice way to optimize your numbers. And the explanation why there is a whole industry built around just these trainings.

When Germany introduced all these thing back in the early 2000s, it was tough. Germany was called the sick man of Europe. Maybe, these initiatives, Agenda 2010 it was called, were not totally wrong. Downside was the creation of whole class of people that aee basically stuck at the lower ranks of the social ladder. So, good for the economy, yes. Good for the country maybe. Good for society, I would say no.

All good comments. My original and main point is that there is a trade-off between the high-protection for workers and unemployment levels. My own home country boasts worker's rights constitutionally but has 30% of poverty level and 50% of child poverty. 40% of the population is not covered by the "worker's protections" because they are not employed.

Highest income workers always get the benefits of workers perks first, and this is unavaoidable. Look at google, famous for giving benefits to employees like good, gym, juic etc, but buildings maintained by swathes of contractors that dont have access to these services.

The more of these you pile up, the bigger the divide.