Tackling youth unemployment
Youth unemployment in the Nordic region has increased as a result of the financial crisis. Can the Nordic countries learn from each other in order to counteract this trend? – Short-term unemployment among youth is not a problem in itself. It is when unemployment becomes entrenched that there is danger afoot, says Christer Hyggen, a post-doctoral research fellow at NOVA – Norwegian Social Research. – Young people who are employable and willing to work should not find themselves outside of working life. Research from Sweden and Japan shows that a person’s development in working life is greatly affected by whether or not the transition from school to working life goes smoothly. We must avoid losing a generation in the wake of the financial crisis, says Dr Hyggen. The Nordic region as a research laboratory Dr Hyggen believes that we can benefit enormously from Nordic cooperation on youth unemployment. – The Nordic region is like a research laboratory where together we can study both youth unemployment and the dropout rate from upper secondary school. All the Nordic countries have excellent data and data registries, as well as a common cultural understanding on which to build. – The differences in the educational systems make comparisons especially interesting, he continues.
Youth the most vulnerable Dr Hyggen is the research coordinator of the Nordic Committee for Children and Young People (NORDBUK), which is an advisory and coordinating body for matters relating to children and young people under the Nordic Council of Ministers. – Youth are the most vulnerable group in the labour market, he says. – They have the least seniority and short employment contracts. Dr Hyggen says that youth unemployment as a phenomenon is always two to three times higher than overall unemployment. Youth unemployment lasts for shorter periods, but is more susceptible to economic fluctuations. This means that it increases more quickly than overall unemployment in hard economic times, but it declines more quickly as well.
– We should be aware of what the statistics don’t tell us, says Dr Hyggen. – It is a typically Nordic trend that we have a relatively large number of pupils who drop out, but very many return and complete their education later. The statistics register these pupils as drop-outs, but in a longer term perspective more young people actually complete their education. According to Dr Hyggen, the reasons why many young people drop out of upper secondary school are complex. – Many of them say that they chose the wrong field of study, he explains, it may also be due to adjustment difficulties or the need for a more practically oriented education. Research in the field provides no clear answers, and measures in this area are often short-term in nature.
Apprenticeships are crucial – Both research and policy have put great focus on young people and their potential shortcomings, explains Dr Hyggen. – There has been less focus on employers and how measures can be developed to encourage them to employ young people. – We know that in countries with a well-developed system of apprenticeships, such as Denmark and Norway, the transition from school to working life goes more smoothly, he continues.
Labour migration is good Dr Hyggen thinks we should not be concerned that young people from the Nordic countries come to their Nordic neighbours to work. – We have been seeking since 1954 to achieve a mobile labour market in the Nordic region. There is no reason to worry because young Swedes, for example, come to Norway to work. On the contrary, it means sorely needed labour and tax revenues for the Norwegian treasury. Young labour means only revenues and no expenditures for the government.
Drop-out from upper secondary school There is a lot of talk about «drop-outs» from upper secondary school, but the dropout rate has not increased dramatically in recent years. In Norway, about 65 per cent of all pupils in vocational programmes complete their schooling. But the numbers do not tell the whole story: 15