OREANDA-NEWS. March 31, 2015. Marianne Thyssen, European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility

United Nations Economic and Social Council 2015 Integration Segment, New York

Commenting on the Jobs, Growth and Investment package contributions to job creation, Marianne Thyssen said:

The number one priority of the new European Commission is to pursue a new start for Europe, based on jobs and growth.  

Economic growth and confidence are now returning in Europe and employment has also started to recover. However, there is strong divergence in the employment and social situation among Member States.

As the demand rebounds, it is clear that the biggest challenge that lies ahead is to restore the economy’s capacity to create jobs.

The Commission has a threefold mutually reinforcing strategy for jobs and growth: boosting investment, promoting reforms and growth-friendly fiscal consolidation. This approach aims at job rich, inclusive and sustainable growth. Let me elaborate on that.

In Europe we face an investment gap, with total investment being about 15% below the pre-crisis figures. To make investment money flow the way it should, the Investment Plan will unlock public and private investments of at least 315 billion euro in the real economy over the next three years.

Projects will be selected in strategic and future-oriented sectors, such as energy, transport, education, research and innovation. We want investments that create jobs, in particular through funding small and medium enterprises and boosting youth employment.

The Investment Plan has the potential to help create more than 1 million new jobs in Europe. A study by the ILO also confirms this important job creation potential.

But boosting investment alone is not enough to improve confidence in the economy. We need growth friendly fiscal consolidation combined with necessary reforms to enable our economies and societies to better anticipate and adapt to change, to invest in our people and offer them equal access to opportunities

These include improving education and skills, facilitating school-to-work transitions, making informal work formal, shifting taxes from labour and modernising social protection.

Such reforms can make investment work for the economy and can guarantee decent work and quality jobs for people in the long run.

Commenting on the importance of skills and the role of the EU Youth Guarantee, Commissioner Thyssen continues:

First and foremost we need to create more jobs. But that in itself is not enough, we must invest in people so that they can take advantage of emerging jobs and remain adaptable.

At the same time as crippling levels of unemployment, 2 million vacancies are unfilled in Europe. People lack the right skills and/or are not geographically mobile to take up available jobs.

Medium-skilled jobs represent around 45% of Europe's economy, and high skilled accounts for around one third of all employment. But almost 20% of Europeans have only basic literacy skills and 25% have only basic numeracy skills. Those skills will be sufficient for only about 11% of jobs in 2025.

At the same time as high unemployment, underemployment acts as a drag on our economy – with people in jobs which don’t fully utilise their skills:

We must:

  • improve school to work transitions to combat youth unemployment
  • anticipate skills needs to look ahead to the careers of tomorrow and to make sure that our education institutions adapt their curricula accordingly – both what they teach and how they teach
  • do more to help  the long term unemployed back on a pathway to work
  • and encourage employers to invest in the skills of their existing workforce

Our commitments must also be translated into concrete action. Allow me to illustrate with one example: the EU Youth Guarantee.

This Guarantee means that that, within 4 months of leaving formal education or becoming unemployed, every young person under 25 in Europe will get a good-quality offer of a job, an apprenticeship, a traineeship, or continued education.

The Youth Guarantee is about giving opportunities to young people to get their foot on the ladder, but it is also about prompting bold structural reform in our Member States to ensure more joined-up approaches. Social partners, labour market institutions and education providers have to work hand-in-hand. For example, by developing new apprenticeships and dual learning models – which we know translate into better employment outcomes for young people.

In this same spirit, later this year, I will also propose an ambitious EU initiative to support the return to the labour market of the Long Term Unemployed, including through improved guidance, skills and individually tailored solutions.

Finally, raising the issue of the importance to promote decent jobs and ensure social protection, Commissioner Thyssen concluded:

For Europe, tackling unemployment, inequality and poverty is not about keeping the lid on the pot. It is a matter of principle. It is about ensuring political, economic and social stability and progress. This is why the new European Commission has put at the core of its agenda quality jobs, growth, fairness and democratic change.

This includes also a new start for social dialogue, as strong and constructive social dialogue is necessary to achieve a better and more resilient social situation. The European Commission has the duty to promote the role of social partners at EU level and to facilitate the dialogue between them- and we intend to give renewed substance to this duty.  

To achieve sustainability in society and economy, but also in environment, decent jobs and social protection are key fundamentals. This is why they should be put in the centre of the new post-2015 development agenda and national efforts.

Investing in decent work is essential not only to curb poverty. Safe and rewarding jobs that boost both productivity and workers' engagement, contribute to growth and sustainability and are prerequisites of a peaceful society. All EU’s new free trade and investment agreements already include commitments on core labour standards and promote decent work.

In the same vein, social protection is an essential lever to combat inequality and make societies more inclusive and stable. In the EU we believe that social protection should have a life-cycle approach, activating, enabling and protecting people from different life risks.

That is why the EU fully supports the development of nationally defined social protection floors in international and multilateral contexts (UN, ILO, G20), as well as in external bilateral policies and actions.