Unemployment rates - especially youth unemployment - have risen to all-time highs with the industrial sector having shed 3.8 million jobs.
Social precariousness and poverty are on the rise too, aggravated by unequal access to quality education. This has negative impacts on private households as well as on national budgets, and means a waste and decline in human resources and long-lasting harm to the psycho-social wellbeing of the affected persons and their families. Poverty and inequalities are behind the current lack of internal demand in Europe, and hence behind Europe’s dependence on external demand and global trends, weakening its position as driving force at global level.