The Rise of Youth Unemployment and Youth NEETs in the CEECs After the 2008 Crisis

Abstract

This study examines the impact of the 2008 economic crisis on youth unemployment and NEETs in the Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs). It also analyses structural labor market problems in these economies such as youth unemployment by duration and skill, labor underutilization, and mismatch. The findings show that youth unemployment and NEET rates were more sensitive to the crisis in the CEECs compared to those in the EU-28. The highest increases were experienced in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Croatia for youth unemployment; and in Bulgaria, Latvia, Croatia, and Romania for youth NEETs. The NEET rates of 15-29 ages emerged as a more crucial issue than that of 15-24 ages. The examination of labor market structural problems shows that most of the relevant proxies worsened after the crisis in the CEECs; however, the proxies for Croatia were higher than the others. Romania, Bulgaria, and Slovak Republic also signal some structural problems, to a lesser extent.