This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The better access to foreign markets negotiated by the EU benefits European companies, workers and consumers. According to the second annual report about the implementation of trade agreements issued today, these agreements – covering nearly 70 markets all over the world – are proving […]EU trade agreements deliver on growth and jobs, support sustainable development
November 1, 2018 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The better access to foreign markets negotiated by the EU benefits European companies, workers and consumers. According to the second annual report about the implementation of trade agreements issued today, these agreements – covering nearly 70 markets all over the world – are proving […]As tech disrupts our jobs, it’s not too late to turn pain into gain
October 26, 2018 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you thanks to the strategic cooperation of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum. Author: Guy Ryder, Director-General, International Labour Organization (ILO) The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2018 gives some cause for encouragement. The business perspective on how technology will affect growth and job creation is becoming more positive, the […]In the future of work it’s jobs, not people, that will become redundant
October 6, 2018 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you thanks to the strategic cooperation of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum. Author: Leena Nair, Chief Human Resources Officer, Unilever I am likely stating the obvious but it needs to be stated as often as possible – the world is changing and it is changing fast. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is blurring […]The megatrend that will shape our working future
September 7, 2018 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you thanks to the strategic cooperation of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum. Author: Ian Lee, Regional Head, APAC, The Adecco Group You may be a talented public relations consultant looking for new clients to build a freelancing business, or a senior manager at a multinational company, dealing with complex budgets, deadlines […]Threats from mammoth banks and Brussels fuel May’s poll rates
May 11, 2017 by Leave a Comment
The Theresa May brexiteer government has started feeling the heat about their choice to fight an electoral battle on a clear and loud plea, that a vote for Tories on 8 June is a vote for a hard Brexit. And mind you the closer we get to the polling date the more heated the controversy […]Eurozone’s central bank leadership prepares for shoddier prospects
May 4, 2016 by Leave a Comment
It has become commonplace to state that the European economy still doesn’t fare well after six years of recession or practical stagnation. For good reasons however in the past few days the horizon looked particularly darkened. Negative statistical evidence and meandering statements by key people are indicative of that. Inflation or rather disinflation statistics, persistently […]No hard drivers in sight to remodel the stagnating affairs of the EU
April 21, 2016 by Leave a Comment
It’s a tautological statement to say that the euro area is an economy which barely moves ahead, towards producing more jobs and incomes for the tens of millions of the unemployed and materially deprived. However, it seems that it’s worse than that. Mario Draghi, the President of the European Central Bank, said it plainly in […]The 28 EU leaders care more about fiscal orthodoxy than effectively fighting youth unemployment
March 30, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Last week the European Court of Auditors (ECA) published a report on the “risks to the successful implementation of the EU Youth Guarantee”. The ECA review, while noting that according to the Commission the available funding for this much advertised EU project is estimated at €16.7 billion for the 2014-2020 period including national resources, it […]Junker for Commission President: What were the stakes in this affair
July 17, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Jean-Claude Juncker’s was confirmed last Tuesday as President of the European Commission for the next five years. In a secret ballot 422 MEPs who voted for him and 250 against. This goes beyond what David Cameron had imagined, when he decided to fervently oppose this appointment for the top EU job. To be reminded, that […]EU Commission: a rise in wages and salaries may help create more jobs
April 2, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The Eurozone unemployment rate in February remained stubbornly stuck at the high level of 11.9% since October 2013. According to Eurostat, the EU’s statistical service, the EU28 unemployment rate was 10.6% in February 2014, one decimal point lower than the 10.7% of January this year. Let’s dig a bit into unemployment. On an absolute number […]Eurostat: Real unemployment double than the official rate
January 21, 2014 by 4 Comments
Gender distribution in selected labour categories, age 15-74, EU-28, 2012 (Eurostat graph) Eurostat, the EU statistical service, revealed that the true unemployment rate in Eurozone during the third quarter of 2013 was much higher than the ‘officially’ recognised percentage of 11.5%, according to the definition of UN’s International Labour Organisation. Including the three forms of […]Job vacancy data reveal better prospects for Britain, stagnation in Eurozone
September 18, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Job vacancy statistics is not a widely used analytical tool despite the fact that is follows more accurately a number of vital social and economic variables, like the robustness of growth or the steepness of fall of economic activity. They are also indicative of the structural effectiveness of labour market workings, of the efficacy of […]Can Eurozone’s uncertain growth answer the challenges that lie ahead?
September 16, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Bit by bit the much advertised resumption of economic activity in Eurozone fades away. The fall of unemployment rate by just one decimal point to 12.1% in June and the increase of GDP during the second quarter of this year by 0.3% fuelled overoptimistic estimates that Eurozone has definitively left behind the lowest part of […]Early signs of growth in Eurozone?
May 31, 2013 by Leave a Comment
All business and consumer indicators for the euro area showed betterment in May according to the Commission’s Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), which conducts those regular and harmonised surveys. Business climate indicator (BCI), consumer confidence and economic sentiment indicator (ESI) all improved during this month of May. It’s the first time […]Mood changes in Europe in favour of growth and jobs
May 30, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Economics is primarily a social not a mathematical science. Forgetting that may lead mathematicians to create toxic investment products like complicated derivatives, which have no other purpose than to cheat people. This misunderstanding may also lead executives like László Andor, EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, to talk about ‘labour market’ as if […]Eurozone: The cycle of deficits, debts and austerity revisited
April 29, 2013 by Leave a Comment
A European Union Member State’s government budget deficit may not exceed -3 % of its gross domestic product (GDP), while its debt may not exceed 60 % of GDP. If a Member State does not respect these limits, the so-called excessive deficit procedure is triggered. The procedures against member states for excessive deficit or debt […]Appalling overall unemployment in Eurozone at 20.6%
April 22, 2013 by Leave a Comment
As it turns out real total unemployment exceeds by far the already dreadful percentages estimated by the national statistical services of the EU countries. According to a press release issued by Eurostat, the EU statistical service, in the EU of 27 member states apart from the tens of millions of the “normal” unemployed, there is […]More unemployment and lower wages to make European workers competitive?
April 19, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The statement that unemployment constantly increases in the European Union has become a banal observation during the past three crisis years. When however it comes to long-term unemployment, comprising workers without a job for more than one year, the end result can be that the labour force of this country or region is reduced by […]EU Parliament: ECB accountable for not supporting real economy
April 18, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The European Parliament yesterday held the European Central Bank accountable for the lack of dissemination to the real economy of the cheap liquidity the central bank has accorded to commercial banks. The resolution adopted during the Parliament’s annual evaluation of the ECB’s activities, addresses both the ECB’s monetary policy responses to the Eurozone crisis and […]EU’s social crisis and unemployment to deteriorate
April 9, 2013 by Leave a Comment
During the 9th European Regional Meeting of the International Labour Office (ILO), which currently takes place in Oslo from 8–11 April, a study was presented showing that in the European Union the risks of social unrest have exploded over the past few years growing with the highest tempos in the world. Obviously this is a […]Rehn ready to sacrifice part of the real economy
February 25, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Last week, Ollie Rehn, the EU Commissioner responsible for the Economy, while presenting his “winter forecast 2012-14” for the Union, appeared not to bother with the prospects of the rising unemployment and the collapsing prospects for the young. Otherwise it cannot be explained why he said that, “The ongoing rebalancing of the European economy is […]
