EUROPEAN UNION
Down and Out in Paris, Milan and Prague
In the 1920s, American writers like Gertrude Stein and Ernest Hemingway fled their boring homeland to live in bohemian Paris. They were called the Lost Generation.
Now the term is being applied to young Europeans who have had to put off their careers twice in the early years of their lives – once due to the Eurozone crisis of 2009 and now because of the coronavirus pandemic that has crippled the continent’s economy.
“For millennials in their mid-30s, especially in southern Europe, bouts of economic misery could indeed be all that they have ever known,” wrote openDemocracy.
One of those millennials is Alessandro Margiotta: He got a job as a warehouse worker in Milan, Italy on a six-month contract, standard fare in a country where economic growth is meager, he told Politico. He had to stay home during the country’s lockdown, then lost the job when his boss said he could not renew his contract.
“My father helps me by paying for my gas, and doing the shopping,” Margiotta told Politico. “It is not easy. I can’t help but think: What if I had my own children?”
After Dunia Skaunicova received a degree in media marketing from Metropolitan University in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, she landed her “dream first job at a startup” that needed multilingual graduates, Reuters wrote. But she lost her job a few months later. Now she’s stuck.
Around 17 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 29 have lost their jobs in the pandemic worldwide. Those who remain employed have worked almost a quarter of fewer hours, according to the United Nations’ International Labor Organization.
In Europe, the situation was already tough for young people looking to begin their lives. But Covid-19 is making things worse. Unemployment among those under 25 increased to 15.7 percent, more than double the rate of older workers. In some southern countries, it’s twice that. One study found that youth unemployment in the European Union would increase from 2.8 to 4.8 million.
In addition to lost wages, missed opportunities and forestalled dreams today, prolonged periods of unemployment can hurt people’s chances of finding good jobs tomorrow.
Not all is doom and gloom. Germany reported improved business morale recently. But the New York Times predicted a potential “grinding downturn,” hardly a good omen, especially when one notes that the newspaper’s reporting on the European economy was far more optimistic in July.
The EU hopes to integrate financial markets more closely in a bid to jumpstart growth. That could boost the role of the euro in international commerce, Pensions & Investments wrote.
It will take more than high-level financial machinations, however, to help 20-somethings who desperately need direction in their lives – and a job.
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