Do young people want to work and are they able to find a good job?

730,000 young Poles aged 15-29 remain unemployed. Most of them are not registered with Public Employment Services, even though the instruments offered by PES are numerous and diversified. Why is it so? Researchers from the Institute for Structural Research, as well as other institutions taking part in the Youth Employment PartnerSHIP project, are looking for the answer.

Who’s NEET?

NEET stands for people aged 15-29 who are not in education, employment, or training. In some EU countries, the rate of NEETs reaches even 50% – in Poland, it is currently approx. 12%. The number of NEETs has been growing in most of the EU countries. Poland is doing quite well in this context, but the number of NEETs has been growing so far as well, mostly due to the pandemic. In such situation, it would be expected to use the tools offered by the labor market institutions.

Why is this not happening?

Mateusz Smoter, an analyst from IBS, concludes that the reasons for that are complex. On the one hand – employment bureaus do not provide information about the support tools to the groups that are most in need. The reason for that is simple – they are not present in schools, social media or rural areas. On the other hand, NEETs do not register as unemployed mostly because of the stigma and the lack of knowledge about instruments other than unemployment benefits (to which many of them are not eligible). It also seems that young people simply do not believe in the effectiveness of these instruments as a real help in finding a good job.

Public Employment Services need mobility

Researchers from the institutions taking part in the Youth Employment PartnerSHIP project suggest several solutions. Firstly, Public Employment Services should present the offered instruments directly in spots where one can find young people most threatened with unemployment, or already unemployed. The permanent cooperation between schools and PES should be firmly established, especially in rural areas. Secondly, social welfare institutions should be used more effectively to spread the knowledge about specific tools that can help NEETs. Thirdly, participation of representatives of employment bureaus at local events (picnics, town/village days festivals) should be far more common. When it comes to rural areas, it is worth considering establishment of mobile information points (e.g. buses), Such a form is also very useful for people with disabilities, who often have difficulties reaching independently employment bureaus.

Evaluation of country-specific Active Labour Market Policies:

Poland 
Spain 
Italy
Hungary
More about the project 

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