Necessity

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The intensification of the crisis in the last years and its devastating effects has increased the factors of social risk among young people.The context of the international financial crisis has had as a result an important increase of the unemployment and has led to conditions of poverty to people who had never imagined being in this situation, due to the loss of their job or the inability to accede.

The access to the labor market is a decisive step in the life of the persons and the first  labor experiences determines greatly the subsequent work career. The group of young  people represents one of the biggest difficulties for the labor insertion, fact that  determines their possibilities of emancipation and full participation in the society.

Some situations of vulnerability or social risk of young people that we detect in the  territorial area of action of the program (EUROSTAT 2013):

• High rate of youth unemployment in all countries where the project will be developed.  The rate of unemployment in all member states is higher among the young people than  the rate of unemployment of the persons aged between 25 to 74. In Greece (55,4%),  Spain (53,2%), Portugal (37,7%), Italy (35,3%) and Ireland (30,4%), the rates of  youth unemployment are particularly high.
• Long-term unemployed people. It's increasing: 32, 4 % of the unemployed young  people have been unemployed for more than 12 months in 2012. The rate of long-term  unemployment has increased in 3, 8 percentage points (up to 7, 3 %) between 2008 and  2012, compared with an increase of 1,9 points for the adults ( 4,4 %).
• Familiar situation of poverty, weak social networks which determines the life and  opportunities of young people.
• Low self-esteem and lack of capacities, competences and personal and social skills in  order to their incorporation to the labor market.

The unemployment affects more the group of young people.

Until ends of 2008, the rate of youth unemployment in the EU 27 has been twice higher than the rate for the total population, reaching its minimal value (18,1 %) in the first trimester of 2008. Nevertheless, the economic crisis seems to have concerned more the young people than the other groups of age. From the beginning of 2009, the gap between the young people and the total rates of unemployment has increased, as a result , at the end of 2012 the rate of youth unemployment nearly trebled the total rate, corresponding to 22,8 %. This information demonstrates the difficulties that the young people bear to accede to the first labor experience in a situation of crisis as the current one.

• Low employment opportunities of young people for lack of formation: the young people with low formation suffer a bigger risk of unemployment. In 2012 the average rate of youth unemployment in the EU was 22,8 %, but it reached 30,3 % in the low qualified young people.

• Temporary employment contract: in 2012, 42, 1 % of the young workers were working with a temporary contract (four times more than the adults) and 31, 1 % was working part-time (almost the double of the adults' rate).

To confront the promotion of young people employment, to make easier their transition to the labor market, and to guarantee their accompaniment in the whole process needs an integral and coherent approach which combines interventions in different areas of action (education and training, but especially in the labor market).