Portugal was the sixth European country where a pandemic most penalized the participation of young people in the labor market, according to data from the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions in the European Union (Eurofound) in a report that analyzes the effects of health crisis and associated restrictions among younger generations.

The document, published this past week, analyzes the effects of covid-19 on access to employment and education, as well as on the mental health of Europeans aged between 15 and 29, based on the results of three rounds. survey conducted by Eurofound throughout 2020 and 2021. The report ultimately produces a set of recommendations that highlight how national governments take long-term measures to increase access and job security among the most young .

“There is a generation of young people in Europe that is still suffering from the effects of the previous crisis and that is now being affected by a second, very different crisis. There is a risk that inequality of opportunities will accumulate, meeting feelings of injustice and distrust “, alerts.
If in the crisis of the last decade the youth unemployment rate at European level reached 20%, with a long cycle of recovery for the younger generations where, despite everything, it continued to punctuate precariousness, the effects of the current crisis are still uncertain .

An analysis of the responses of young Europeans regarding the impact of the pandemic on access to the labor market shows, for now, that 12% of respondents – workers and students – evaluated in the course of this crisis away from the labor market. In Portugal, the percentage will be around 7%, being the sixth highest among EU Member States (in an analysis without data for Cyprus and Malta), according to the figures recorded in the report. Greece, Spain, Ireland, Italy and Bulgaria are the countries where a higher percentage of respondents reported having either lost their job or not having found a job after completing their studies.

The results of the sample gathered by Eurofound detail percentages for both hypotheses. In the first case, that of young people who had a job before the onset of the pandemic and lost it, traveling to Portugal is around 8%, appearing as the seventh highest. Still, far from the approximately 30% of young Irish respondents who were called out of work, or from the 12% and 11% registered in the Spanish and Slovak responses, respectively.
The weight of those who completed their studies without finding a job, in Portugal, is 6%, also the seventh highest in the group of countries for which there is data. The most penalized young Europeans were the Irish (15%), Spanish and Greeks (both with percentages of 13%).
remote teaching does not satisfy

The report also analyzes data from Eurofound surveys to look at the degree of satisfaction with educational responses in a pandemic context (only 40% of young Europeans are satisfied with the remote learning option), and to assess financial security among the youngest. Here, the data reflect that more than half of the young people surveyed were living or had come to live with their parents during a pandemic (51% in the summer of 2020 and 61% in the spring of 2021), which prioritized mitigating as hardships. In particular, housing insecurity – highest among unemployed or inactive youth (17% in spring 2021).

The report’s data also show that there were high percentages of young Europeans resorting to public support that were mobilized by governments, although not all of them saw the requests granted. In the summer of last year’s application, 26% of surveys from various countries had some form of support, with 17% receiving it. By the spring of 2021, 33% had applied for support, with 25% receiving it.