Summary of research for EPSU, 2012

1. Europe’s public sector: where are the
young workers?
Nick Clark
Working Live Research Institute

2. Background to project
Youth in Europe’s labour market
European Government responses
The state as an employer
Has “flexibility” helped young workers?
Concluding remarks

3. Research into precarious work
and young workers in public
services
3 Key sectors for European Federation of Public
Service Unions (EPSU):
Energy & water; Public administration, defence, social
security; Health & social care
16-24 year olds’
Employment; Precariousness; Training, progression &
careers; Collective bargaining
Europe
EU-27; nine specific countries (including UK)

4. Youth (15-24 years) unemployment rates (October 2011)

5. Change in youth unemployment rates 20072010 (EU 27)

6. Change in youth unemployment rates 20072010 (EU 27)

7. Part time as % of all workers,
15-24 yrs

8. Proportion 16-24 year olds with temporary
contract (Eurostat Q2 2010)

9. Change in temporary employment

10. Activity status young people
EU 27, 2008

11. Youth in the European labour
market
High level of unemployment (21% compared to 10%,
ranging from 8% Austria to 46% Spain)
Low activity rate (50-60%, compared to 70%+)
Increasing participation in tertiary education
In work, more likely to
Have temporary contract (4 times more likely)
Work part-time involuntarily
Be low paid
Less likely to be self-employed
Hit hard during the crisis

12. Europe’s response
Youth on the Move – Commission’s 2010 initiative, primarily aimed
at improving educational levels, but also to launch “Youth
employment framework”
Interventions to support young workers in OECD countries report
(World Bank 2007) found direct employment strategies in US and
Canada, but not Europe
European Employment Observatory, “Youth employment
measures, 2010” (published Feb 2011) reported no policy initiatives
relating to the state as an employer
Eurofound study (2011) finds active labour market strategies to be
common government response (sometimes contested by unions),
but again no mention of public sector’s role as employer
“Overall, governments’ policies towards young workers have tended to emphasise
the importance of getting young people into work, no matter the quality of the jobs
available.”

13. YOUNG WORKERS & PUBLIC
SERVICES

14. Youth employment by sector
2005 (EU-25)

15. Youth employment by sector
2005 (EU-25)

16. Youth employment by sector
2005 (EU-25)

17. Youth employment by sector
2005 (EU-25)

18. 2011 youth employment in
public administration
% workforce aged 15-24
Country
All industries &
services
Public
administration
, defence,
social sec.
EU 27
9.1
4.8
Czech Rep
6.3
4.2
Germany
11.0
8.3
Italy
5.1
1.5
Netherlands
15.5
4.8
UK
12.9
4.9

22. Ranked by proportion of youth in
population

23. Ranked by proportion of youth in
population

24. Ranked by proportion of youth in
population

25. Ranked by proportion of youth in
population

26. Ranked by proportion of youth in
population

27. Ranked by proportion of youth in
population

28. Ranked by proportion of youth in
population

29. Is “flexibility”
(precariousness),
helping?

30. Job security and age: French civil
service (2008)

31. Job security and age: French civil
service (2008)

32. Job security and age: French civil
service (2008)

33. Youth as % all temps: health & social work
q1 2008-q2 2011, EU 27

34. Youth as % all temps: public admin,
defence, social sec.
q1 2008-q2 2011, EU 27

35. summary from data
Unemployment becoming more widespread amongst
Europe’ young workers
As measures (but not definitions) of precarity, temporary
contracts and involuntary part time working more
prevalent
Public services perform worse than economy as a whole
in employing young workers – public administration
universally the worst
Young workers more affected by crisis – particularly in
public services

36. Interviews
“flexible” forms of working did not protect young workers
in public services, in fact they were made more
vulnerable to being the first to go:
Temporary contracts in Spain widespread
“Mini-jobs” in Germany (social care)
80,000 in “continuous collaboration” contracts in Italy,
but 70,000 pass entrance exam to find no jobs
50,000 stagiaires in Greece had contracts terminated
O’Higgins (IZA 6434 2012): ease of terminating contracts
of young is positively correlated with level of youth
unemployment

37. Concluding remarks
“…the principal difficulty seems to be that the previous precariousness of young
workers’ employment (in terms of job security) has meant that they have been first to
lose their jobs when cuts were made. The fact that young workers are much more
likely to be on low wages (…interviews confirmed that this was the case in public
services, too) does not seem to be keeping them in work”
“If Europe’s public administrations simply employed the same proportion of under25 year olds now as they did at the end of 2008…, over 100,000 more of Europe’s
young would currently have a job. Had employment of the young stayed at the same
level numerically, there would 165,000 fewer European youth unemployed.
Are governments just stupid?
“the expected wave of retirements could provide an
opportunity for governments to restructure their
workforce by decreasing employment levels” (OECD
2011).