Madrid, Spain. File photoMOSCOW, February 21The lowest unemployment in Europe at the end of 2021, as a year earlier, was recorded in the Czech Republic, the highest rates were in Spain and Greece, and Russia moved from 18th to 10th place over the year, according to a RIA Novosti study. experts say that after a period of serious lockdowns and fear due to a pandemic in 2021, one could expect a recovery in the economy and employment, but the real dynamics exceeded even the wildest forecasts. Of the 34 countries analyzed, all but one showed a decline in unemployment, and in more than a third of cases, unemployment fell to levels lower than it was before the pandemic, and on average across Europe, the decline in employment was almost fully recouped. The work of many companies in 2020 is almost completely stopped, and entire sectors (tourism, public events and others) faced a multiple drop in revenue and staff cuts. Thus, the recovery of the economy and employment in 2021 against the backdrop of the continuation of the pandemic partly surprises experts. To assess the situation on the labor market in different countries in 2021, RIA Novosti experts, based on official statistics, prepared the second annual rating of European countries in terms of level and dynamics unemployment. As initial data, statistical reports on the dynamics of unemployment were taken according to the methodology of the International Labor Organization (ILO), published by national statistical agencies and Eurostat. Unemployment was estimated for the fourth quarter of 2021, and the dynamics was calculated relative to the fourth quarter of 2020. Youth unemployment was estimated for people aged 15-24.00:00InfographicsRanking of European countries by unemployment rateHigh Even in the pre-pandemic years, the unemployment rate in many European countries was at a fairly high level. In particular, in the southern countries, such as Greece, Italy, Spain and some others, after a decade of rapid growth in the early 2010s, there was a fairly large-scale crisis that raised the unemployment rate to 30 percent in certain periods, that is, about everyone was unemployed. the third able-bodied citizen of the country. A somewhat different situation has developed in the «rich» European countries. They have an effective system of support for the unemployed, which often reduces incentives to look for work and makes life on welfare comfortable for many years, experts explain. They note that high unemployment outside the EU has slightly different reasons. Here, the weak economies play a dominant role, as well as structural unemployment due to the collapse of the industry left over from the Soviet Union.The leaders in the quality of life among the regions of Russia have been named. In this case, analysts distinguish two poles: Belarus, which has retained most of the Soviet industry, is characterized by unemployment at the level of four percent, and Ukraine, which has dismantled almost completely the Soviet economic legacy, is more than nine percent (with such a result this country ranked third from the end). Moreover, in Ukraine this figure was even higher (13 percent), but in recent years it has declined significantly due to labor migration to the EU countries and Russia. According to experts, the unemployment situation in Russia has developed quite favorably in recent years. Before the pandemic, it was declining, and at the beginning of 2020 dropped to a historic low of 4.6 percent, but in 2020 it increased significantly due to the pandemic. In 2021, a new record was set, unemployment in Russia is now only 4.3 percent, and there are often already discussions about shortages of workers. As the compilers of the rating explain, due to the good dynamics of unemployment, Russia has moved from 18th place to 10th place in the ranking of European countries over the year.RBC: Ministry of Labor will change the procedure for issuing unemployment benefitsSix-fold differenceAccording to the study, at the end of 2021, the lowest unemployment was observed in the Czech Republic, where the share of people looking for work is only 2.2 percent. According to analysts, this can be called a phenomenally low result, indicating a very strong dynamics of the economy and a real shortage of workers in the labor market. Unemployment is also quite low in Poland, Germany and Malta. Here it does not exceed 3.5 percent in the last quarter of 2021. In four more countries, unemployment is in the range of 3.6-3.8 percent. At the same time, the median unemployment rate among the 34 countries analyzed is 5.2 percent (6.1 percent a year earlier). This is another side of the coin, experts explain. Low unemployment effectively limits the economy's further growth, as the necessary staff may not be available to expand production and new services.American scientists have declared the dangers of lockdowns At the other end of the rating are countries with high unemployment. The outsider in terms of the share of job seekers in Europe was Spain (13.4 percent). It was outstripped in the ranking by Greece, which for a decade struggled with a severe economic crisis and therefore showed very high unemployment. However, in the last year, Greece was able to take a more significant step towards a way out of the current situation, and unemployment here fell by 3.8 percentage points over the year, which allowed it to leave the last line in the ranking. Now Greece's unemployment remains at 13.2 percent. Despite the strong progress in Greece and Spain, other countries at the bottom of the list are still noticeably better off. In Ukraine, unemployment is at 9.6 percent, in Italy the unemployment rate is 9.1 percent, in Sweden 8.3 percent, and in France 7.5 percent. unemployment is almost six times lower than in Spain, which closes the table. At the same time, the result of the top five in the ranking is 3.5 times better than the average unemployment in the five countries that occupy the last places in the ranking. Thus, the employment situation in European countries is highly differentiated. Russia is ranked at the top of the list and now occupies 10th place with an unemployed share of 4.3 percent at the end of 2021, the UK showed almost the same result, and slightly worse unemployment is the same in Slovenia (4.7 percent).Putin called the unemployment rate in Russia minimalDynamics of changeIn 2021, only one country studied — Ukraine — was unable to reduce unemployment against the backdrop of economic recovery after the pandemic. In Ukraine, unemployment increased by 0.1 percentage points over the year. According to experts, this may be due to a reduction in opportunities to travel to work in other countries, and now some of the labor migrants from Ukraine are forced to look for work within their country. Due to such dynamics, Ukraine lost one position in the ranking and is now in the bottom three. Unemployment decreased quite weakly (within 0.1 percentage points) in the Netherlands, Switzerland and Belgium. One of the best results in terms of unemployment dynamics for 2021 was shown by Russia . The share of the unemployed here decreased by 1.8 percentage points, which is significantly more than the average for the countries studied. On average (median) across Europe last year, unemployment decreased by 0.9 percentage points. This ultimately allowed Russia to greatly improve its position in the ranking.The UN recorded the return of the pre-pandemic level of employment in Russia As mentioned above, the largest decline in unemployment was observed in Greece (-3.8 percentage points). In Lithuania, unemployment decreased by 3.2 percentage points over the year, in Spain there was a decrease by 2.7 percentage points, and the situation in Estonia was characterized by a decrease in the share of unemployed at the level of 2.5 percentage points in 2021. According to analysts, if in Spain and Greece, the decline was likely the result of a continued recovery from a protracted crisis, and 2020 was only a break in this long-term trend, while Latvia and Estonia showed good dynamics after very poor results the year before last. Thus, the sharp decline in unemployment in the Baltic countries may be due to the partial opening of borders in the European Union after the 2020 pandemic restrictions, which once again allowed young professionals to look for work in «richer» countries.
In Russia, the amount of unemployment benefits increasedYouth unemploymentSeparately, experts analyzed youth unemployment, which, as a rule, is much higher than the general one. According to the study, the median youth unemployment is at 15 percent, and in some countries it exceeds 30 percent. The most unfavorable situation with youth unemployment, according to the study, is in Greece and Spain (33 percent and 31 percent, respectively). It is also quite difficult for young people (15-24 years old) to find work in Italy and Sweden. In two more countries, at least one in five young people have difficulty finding a job. For comparison, a year earlier, youth unemployment above 20 percent was observed in 15 countries, against six in the new rating. Thus, during the crisis, young people suffered more in terms of job searches, but the positive dynamics in 2021 among young professionals turned out to be much better than in the labor market as a whole.
Unemployment rate in Moscow decreased by six times A very good situation with employment among young people is observed in Germany, where only 6.2 percent of people from this category cannot find a job, the rating shows. Eight more countries have youth unemployment below ten percent. Experts note that low youth unemployment is recorded in many countries with a fairly strong economy. According to RIA Novosti analysts, in 2022 the labor market in European countries may stop showing positive dynamics. First, in many countries the stock has been exhausted, and unemployment has fallen below the natural rate. Secondly, unemployment often shows opposite dynamics relative to inflation, which is at its highest for many decades, and therefore a decrease in unemployment is quite natural in such conditions. Russian Central Bank raises rates from mid-2021). As rates rise and inflation slows, unemployment may start to moderately increase in many European countries, experts say. for pensionersPosted by: Nikita Stoma
