[kidmenot]

Then again, while I agree with the value of studying for a degree, young people see the vast majority of their slightly older peers with a degree in their hands who can't get a job, so I can see why the young can decide to forego college.

This is Italy I'm talking about, I don't know enough about other European countries. While the average youth unemployment rate for Europe is ~19%, ours got as high as 37%. That is a lot, only better than Greece and Spain.

There are many more factors to keep into account, such as the undeniable fact that a lot of current youngsters feel entitled just because they have a degree, or flat-out refuse jobs because that's not what they studied for, as if it was beneath them. They don't seem to realize that it's no longer like it was in the past decades, when very few people could access higher education, and were of course preferred in job interviews to people who just went to high school.

On the other hand, taxation is extremely high and heavy on entrepreneurs (employees cost ~2x their salary), who then hire under shitty one-off contracts because it costs less, so the whole job market is very hard to get into and very easy to drop off of.

Another issue is that there are a bunch of useless degrees, such as this thing called "Political sciences", which makes you pretty much unemployable, and sadly a lot of people choose it, and wonder why they can't find a job.

There are also many other factors at play here. It's a shitshow, really.

Higher education does have a lot of value in terms of teaching how to solve problems and hopefully teaching you how to network, but there are reasons to either drop out or don't even get into college in the first place.

[marvin]

People don't talk enough about this shit when discussing Europe's poor economy. Most of Southern Europe, France included, is almost socialist (in a bad way) in the way that free enterprise is treated.

I don't see how anyone could think economic growth, entrepreneurship and wage growth is possible when employment taxes are 100% (of salary) and people are encouraged by their accountants to spend just the right amount of effort cheating on their taxes. Add to this a corrupt, purpose-bred government class that consists of people who never held a normal job in their lives.

The EU should get on this problem with considerably more effort.

[kidmenot]

Amen to that. Employees are awfully expensive, and while we wait for the government to do something, business owners keep relocating manufacturing to places where labor is cheaper, leaving citizens unemployed.

I don't know if the solution looks so simple to me (lower the fucking cost of labor already) because I don't know anything about economy, or because someone is interested in maintaining this status quo.

[danmaz74]

OTOH, Italy has one of the lowest percentage of people with higher education in Western Europe, and one of the highest unemployment levels. So, the reason why there are so many young unemployed people for sure isn't the fact that we have too many young people with degrees.

[kidmenot]

You know, I don't feel as comfortable discarding the "too many young people with degrees" argument, because it's still a lot more people with a degree than there were in the past. I think it plays a role, and along with the cost of labor and the (real or perceived) recession and many other factors, it contributes to making the Italian job market what it is today.

[danmaz74]

All western countries which have higher young people employment levels also have a higher rate of young people with degrees...

[tiggybear]

Don't forget about the entitlements of the business owners. Many, many, many believe they are entitled to highly skilled and highly educated workers without paying them enough to afford the shittiest house/condo within an unreasonable commute to the office.

So at some point it isn't the workers that are being unreasonable. And I'm really curious what you think that point is? What defines who is being unreasonable among the business owner or worker? Or is that just dictated by which socioeconomic class you fall into?

[marcosdumay]

Before landing my first job out of college I had to refuse quite a few offers because I would effectively have to pay to work on them. And that was in a growing economy in a much more young-accepting climate, besides, rent was cheaper by the time.

The way you phrased it, it sounds entitled. But I guess the people downvoting your comment have no idea what it is to enter the workforce nowadays.

[kidmenot]

Asshole entrepreneurs are one of the other factors I was talking about. They tend to make it very hard for young people to enter the job market (the famous 5+ years of experience required).

It's a bit of self-entitlement on the part of the prospective employees, and a bit of self-entitlement on the part of the entrepreneurs. The latter are rightfully mad at the government, and since they're in it for the money, they try to save as much money as they can. I'm not condoning these practices, I'm just saying that, when everything you earn from January to June goes in taxes, I can understand them trying everything they can.

[zamber]

It's pretty much the same story in Poland.

[Tade0]

I don't think so. I'm from Poland and I've spent a few years in Italy and the situation there is completely different - as in - much worse.

Comparing to the rest of Europe businesses in Poland pay relatively low taxes, youth unemployment is below the EU average and barely anybody can afford to turn down a job opportunity.