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Introduction
Labour Markets
Unemployment rates in 2004 vary between 4.5 percent in countries like Ireland and Austria and close to 10 percent in Germany, France and Spain. In some of the Eastern European countries, the figures are even above 15 percent (For instance in Slovakia and Poland).
Given these high unemployment rates, one of the most pressing issues in contemporary economics is how to deal with various problems in the labour markets.
The economic and social consequences of labour market problems are tremendous, and since the beginning of the EEAG, the group has devoted at least one chapter to this topic every year. In 2007 the unemployment rate was in EU 9.7 per cent, Euro area 10.2 percent with 21.7 percent in Spain, 17.7 in Greece, 14.4 percent in Ireland, 12.9 percent in Portugal, France 9.7 percent, 5.9 percent in Germany and 4.2 percent in Austria. In November 2012 the unemployment rate was in Euro area 11.8 percent, 10.7 percent in EU-27, 26.6 percent in Spain, 26 percent in Greece, 16.3 percent in Portugal, 14. 7 percent in Ireland, 5.4 percent in Germany and 4.5 percent in Austria.
