European Youth Are Having a Hard Time Finding Jobs

If you're under 25 and looking for a job in Spain, odds are you won't find one.

Spain and Greece both registered youth unemployment rates higher than 50 percent in August, according to European Union data released Tuesday.

Last month's economic picture was similarly bleak for youth (people age 25 and younger) in Italy and Croatia, which had youth jobless rates of 44.2 percent and 43.9 percent, respectively.

The German-speaking nations of Austria and Germany were the only two euro area countries with youth unemployment below 10 percent.

Image via Wikimedia Commons/TheBlaze

A recent Brookings Institute report honed in on the permanent damage early unemployment can do to a young person's earning potential:

A growing academic literature on the “scarring” effects of launching a career without a job suggests that young people who endure early spells of unemployment are likely to have lower wages and greater odds of future unemployment than those who don’t. Studies indicate a 10 to 15 percent wage “scar” from early unemployment, and those earnings losses persist for at least 20 years.

Over at the Atlantic, Derek Thompson has noted the delaying effect early unemployment has for young people, as they move back in with parents and put off marriage and having kids for years during tough times.

In Europe, while youth may be hit particularly hard, the overall unemployment picture isn't very bright either.

While the U.S. registered a jobless rate of 6.1 percent in August, the 18 nations that use the euro had an average jobless rate nearly twice that last month: 11.5 percent.

(H/T: Business Insider)

Featured image via Shutterstock

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