ANTOINE ANTONIOL/GETTY IMAGES
LOST
GENERATION
pathway to a more prosperous life
only to find that their degrees are
no antidote to a bleak job market.
“Youth unemployment is dramatic,” according to José María
Aznar, the former prime minister
of Spain, who spoke at a recent
conference in New York. Fiftysix percent of would-be Spanish
workers under 25 are jobless. “It’s
jeopardizing the opportunities for
future prosperity and growth.”
The profound shortage of working opportunities for young people
around the globe is largely the result of the synchronized financial
crisis that emerged in the United
States and then spread to Europe,
generating economic strains on
virtually every shore. Youth unem-
HUFFINGTON
10.20.13
ployment now holds the potential
to exacerbate deep-seated social
and political tensions while yielding
new conflicts in an age of scarcity.
The Huffington Post has deployed
its global resources in an effort to
capture the scope of this crisis and
its many permutations, forging a
collective report drawn from newsrooms at international editions in
seven countries. This story is intended as the beginning of a sustained conversation about the consequences of youth unemployment,
examining the pitfalls and also possible ways out. Future stories will
spotlight programs that may yield
improvements, as well as the entrepreneurial spirit that is emerging as
young people confront pressure to
make their own opportunities.
This report focuses on an affected group of particular importance:
Youth unemployment
was the #1
campaign
issue of
President
Francois
Hollande
when he
defeated
incumbent
Nicolas
Sarkozy in
May of 2012.