Young, Euro, and Out of Work

We think of Europe as a bastion of social safety nets. Countries like France and Germany offer citizens universal health care, education, and generous unemployment benefits.

But recession-era European youth don’t have it any easier than their U.S. counterparts. Unemployment amongst young French jobseekers has risen more than 40 percent over the past year and nearly one-third of Britian’s unemployed are under 25 years old. As they search for jobs in a stagnant market, politicians and social scientists alike are wondering what will happen to this restless, out-of-work generation.

Here to tell us more is Annie Lowrey. She’s assistant editor at Foreign Policy magazine and she joins us from the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C.

(Photo by philippe leroyer via Flickr/Creative Commons)