Professional paper
Youth (Un)Employment and the NEET Population in Croatia
Ivan Bedeniković
orcid.org/0000-0002-2446-7276
; Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb
Abstract
The topic of this article is youth unemployment and the NEET population in Croatia. It also presents normative acts, current challenges and potential future steps towards higher youth employment rates in Croatia. Young people are one of the most exposed groups in danger of poverty or social exclusion. By combining an analysis of strategic documents and statistical data with relevant scientific literature, this article aims to illustrate the situation “in the field“, as well as to provide guidelines for further decreases in unemployment rates and increase of employment rates of young people and the NEET population in Croatia. Youth Guarantee is one of the European Union's attempts at solving the matter of youth unemployment and seeks to ensure that all young people under the age of 25 (under 30 in Croatia) begin participating in the labour market as soon as possible. Due to the past crisis, it can be said that youth unemployment in Croatia has become a structural problem that has to be solved on the level of the Croatian curriculum as well as through rapid adaptation to the processes and the situation on the labour market. It is clear that there is a mismatch between the needs of the labour market and the system of education. Youth policies, youth employment policies and reducing youth unemployment rates (including the NEET population, of course) need to be the political priority of all political structures regardless of country, both at the level of European consensus as well as the national. Young people and their education, employment and prosperity are the conditio sine qua non for the future development and survival of any country.
Keywords
youth unemployment; Youth Guarantee; NEET; EU; Croatia
Hrčak ID:
187011
URI
Publication date:
2.10.2017.
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