A Single European Labour Market: moving it closer?

Mikkel Barslund (CEPS), Gregory Claeys (Bruegel), Anne Macey (Confrontations Europe) [vc_btn title= »Télécharger l’article » style= »outline » color= »blue » align= »right » i_icon_fontawesome= »fa fa-file-pdf-o » add_icon= »true » link= »url:http%3A%2F%2Fprod.confrontations.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F04%2FTTD2015-Backgrounder-Labour-Markets.pdf||target:%20_blank »] The great recession and the subsequent debt crisis have been hard on the EU. Public-finance restructuring in many countries has resulted in a significant increase in unemployment in Europe from 7% in 2009 to 10.8% in 2013 and in very high unemployment in the periphery. The apparent pre-crisis EU convergence has turned into what seems like continuous divergence roughly along a north-south fault line. One outcome of this development is the stark contrast in labour market conditions between on the one side Germany and a few other northern European countries and those of Spain, Italy and other peripheral countries. For young people, who are traditionally more mobile, the differences are staggering. In fact, major national labour-market performances have never before displayed the differences that are evident today. The single European