20/05/2009 - France should do more to ease the transition of unskilled young people into employment. The government should give priority to helping young people the furthest removed from the job market and to strengthening the social protection of the most disadvantaged, according to a new report by the OECD.
Jobs for Youth: France reveals that the current serious economic crisis will lead to a steep increase in unemployment among young people in France. This crisis has fallen upon them at a time when their situation in the labour market was already not very favourable. The employment rate for young people in France is one of the lowest in the OECD area and one unemployed young person in four is out of work for more than a year, compared to the OECD average of one in five.
“The short-term priority is to introduce measures that target the young people most at risk. I am delighted that President Sarkozy launched an emergency plan for youth employment at the end of April that focused on apprenticeships. It is now that action needs to be taken otherwise the young people entering the labour market in 2009, those who will make up the 2009 generation, run a great risk of becoming a lost generation. It is equally important to tackle the more structural labour market problems affecting the transition from school to work”, declared the Secretary-General of the OECD, Mr. Angel Gurría, at the presentation of the report in Paris. Read the speech in full. |
The employment rate for young people in France is one of the lowest in the OECD area and one unemployed young person in four is out of work for more than a year, compared to the OECD average of one in five |
The report, entitled Jobs for Youth : France is the latest in a series launched by the OECD in some fifteen countries. To obtain a copy of the publication or for further information, journalists should contact the OECD media division (tel. 33 1 45 24 97 00). The report can be purchased in paper or electronic form through the OECD’s Online Bookshop. Subscribers and readers at subscribing institutions can access the online version via SourceOECD.
For more information, journalists are invited to contact Anne Sonnet, Division for Employment Analysis and Policy of the OECD (tel. + 33 1 45 24 91 69).
Watch a video on this issue with Martine Durand, Deputy Director of the Employment Analysis and Policy Division of the OECD (video available only in French) |
Further information: => Visit the OECD's site on Employment, Labour and Social Affairs - www.oecd.org/els |
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