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CHART OF THE WEEK
EU Youth Unemployment
 
Summary: European unemployment figures for December 2014 were released at the end of last week, and both the headline figure and youth unemployment were down compared to the end of 2013 (unemployment was down from 10.6% to 9.9% and youth unemployment was down from 23.1% to 21.4%). However, as usual with Europe, there were some large regional variations.

 
What does the chart show? The chart shows the youth unemployment rate (in %) for each of the 28 EU countries. The red bar shows the latest available monthly figure (December 2014 for most of them; November for Estonia and Hungary; October for Greece and the UK; and September for Latvia). The blue bar shows the figure for the same period a year ago. Eurostat defines the youth unemployment rate as the percentage of the labour force aged between 15-25 (ie. all those in work or currently looking for work) who are currently unemployed.

Why is the chart interesting?  High youth unemployment has been a prominent feature of the European recession, and in most places it is now starting to get better. In some countries, youth unemployment has fallen by a lot: for example, Cyprus, Greece and Bulgaria all saw large decreases over the past year, while Estonia, the Czech Republic and Denmark all also saw large percentage decreases (from a smaller base). In fact, Greece has improved by so much that Spain has now overtaken it as the European country with the biggest youth unemployment problem. The UK has experienced a modest decline in youth unemployment over the period, keeping it in 9th place (the same as last year).

However, in a few countries in the EU, there have been increases in youth unemployment. This is most worrying for Italy, France and Slovenia because they already had significant youth unemployment problems (although Luxembourg and Finland also saw small rises). For those countries, things look like they are getting worse, not better.
 
Greg Opie from the Economic Research Council will be on Share Radio on Wednesday evening from 7.30pm talking about this week's chart.  To listen, please visit www.shareradio.co.uk.
 
The ERC Chart of the Week is updated every Wednesday.


 
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THREE MINUTES WITH MATTHEW ELLIOTT
 
Last week, Matthew Elliott (Chief Executive of Business for Britain) came to speak to the ERC at one of our monthly events. We caught up with him after the talk, and recorded the latest in our series of "Three Minutes With..." videos, in which Matthew summarises what his talk was about, as well as discussing what he'd do if he was the Chancellor and which economist he would most like to share a prison cell with. You can watch the video on Youtube by clicking here.
 
ERC members who missed Matthew's talk can also listen to an audio recording of the speech on our website by clicking here.
 

THE ERC'S TOP THREE FROM TWITTER
 
Here are this week's top three articles or blog posts we've seen on twitter:
 
Martin Wolf argues that while creating the Euro might be the EU's second worst monetary idea, breaking it up again would be even worse.
 
A financial summary of the latest football transfer window in the UK, which closed this week, from Deloitte's Sports Business Group.
 
It may not have a great title, but the ONS' February Economic Review contains a good summary of the economic stats that have been released recently.
 
Please follow the ERC on Twitter: @EconResCouncil
 

NEXT EVENT
 
"The Ends of Monetary Policy"
Felix Martin, Author of "Money: The Unauthorised Biography"

Wednesday 25th February
18:30 at the Royal Overseas League, London
 
Regular tickets cost £20 each, but a limited number of
Early Bird Tickets are currently available for just £15.
For tickets and more information please click here.
 

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