Blog post

Youth unemployment in the Mediterranean region and its long-term implications

Youth unemployment in the Mediterranean region has consequences for the whole of Europe. Tackling youth unemployment in the region must continue to be

Publishing date
13 April 2016

This blog was produced within the framework of the Bruegel- OCP PC joint conference.

It includes all countries with coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea: Albania, Algeria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Libya, Malta, Morocco, Monaco, Montenegro, Northern Cyprus, Palestine, Slovenia, Spain, Syria, Turkey and Tunisia.

Data for Monaco, Northern Cyprus and Palestine is often not available. Germany and the European Union have been included for comparison purposes.

Europe’s Mediterranean neighbourhood has become a focal point of attention due to the refugee crisis. With over a million people arriving in Europe in the course of 2015, the question of how to address the growing immigration pressures has become a central political issue.

Countries around the Mediterranean are also under scrutiny due to mounting security concerns in Syria, Libya and elsewhere. A range of economic literature links conflicts to demographic conditions and poor economic opportunities for young people. Countries undergoing “demographic transition”, resulting in very youthful populations, are especially vulnerable to conflict, in particular when economic opportunities are scarce (Homer-Dixon 1999; Kelley & Schmidt 2001; Urdal 2004; Kahl 2006).

Youth unemployment is an urgent issue in many countries across the Mediterranean region, where 25.4 million people are unemployed, of whom 7-8 million are aged 15-24. (World Bank 2014; United Nations World Population Prospects 2015).  490 million people live in the region, of which 192 million are part of the 8 EU member states.

The proportion of young people not in education, employment or training has increased since the financial crisis, and in many countries youth unemployment rates are higher than unemployment in the older working age population. The figures available may even underrepresent the true level of unemployment due to non-participation in the labour market.

The growth in youth unemployment is particularly worrying. It can have long-lasting effects on productivity and potential growth, often excluding young people from the labour market for an extended period of time, lowering their productivity and affecting their job prospects for life (Arulampalam 2001; Gregg and Tominey 2005).

The demographic structures of Mediterranean countries vary widely, as can be seen in Figure 1. Median ages in non-EU Mediterranean countries are generally lower than in EU Mediterranean countries. The two most populous non-EU Mediterranean countries, Turkey and Egypt, both have median ages well below any EU country.

Around the Mediterranean, the median age has increased substantially over the past two decades, but with significant differences across countries.

Over the past decade, growth per capita was higher for the non-EU Mediterranean countries. Figure 3 shows the average annual GDP per capita growth of the last ten years, based on purchasing power parities.

The low growth figures in the EU reflect the deep scars left by the euro-area crisis. Growth in non-EU countries was relatively robust in comparison, suggesting some income convergence, although from a low per-capita level.

Unemployment rates in the Mediterranean rose more sharply for EU member states than for non-EU Mediterranean countries over the past 10 years, again reflecting the economic crisis. Unemployment rates at least doubled between 2005 and 2014 for Cyprus, Greece and Spain, with the highest increase in Cyprus where the unemployment rate nearly tripled from 2005 to 2014. Unemployment rates also increased for four non-EU Mediterranean countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Egypt and Syria).

Youth unemployment rates, defined as the share of the labour force aged 15-24 without work but available for and seeking employment, increased much more than overall unemployment rates in most Mediterranean countries from 2005-2014.

Youth unemployment rates in Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Slovenia and Spain rose more sharply than the EU average. Youth unemployment rates in the non-EU Mediterranean countries have also increased over the past ten years, including in those with already high youth unemployment rates such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Egypt, Libya, Montenegro, Syria and Tunisia.

Labour force participation rates have remained similar to levels ten years ago although participation dropped in some EU countries including Croatia, France and Slovenia as well as in the non-EU countries Albania, Morocco, Montenegro and Syria. Israel’s labour force participation rate changed most, with an increase of almost 8 percentage points compared to a decade ago.

In a number of the Mediterranean countries, female unemployment is much higher than male unemployment, but this is likely distorted by the significant differences in participation rates of men and women. In the non-EU Mediterranean countries, female unemployment rates in Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Libya and Syria are at least 1.5 times as high as male unemployment rates, and, with the exception of Egypt, the difference has increased in the past ten years.

For most EU Mediterranean countries, male and female unemployment rates were similar in 2014, with lower female unemployment rates compared to male unemployment rates in Croatia, Cyprus, France and Germany. Notably, gaps between female and male unemployment rates – which used to be substantial - lessened in Greece, Italy and Spain between 2005 and 2014.

The Mediterranean faces a crisis of unemployment and youth unemployment that matters not only for the countries individually but also has wider implications, including for the EU as a whole. Initiatives in the region have failed to prevent high levels of youth unemployment (European Commission; European Training Foundation 2015; Koenig 2016).

Meanwhile, demographic pressures and immigration flows suggest that unemployment rates could increase further in the years to come. Tackling youth unemployment in the region should continue to be a high policy priority, but the focus must be on programmes that have demonstrated results. In addition, the EU’s neighbourhood policy needs to be given greater priority and should include some countries, such as Libya and Syria, which are currently at the margins of the partnership.

About the authors

  • Guntram B. Wolff

    Guntram Wolff is a Senior fellow at Bruegel. He is also a Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the Willy Brandt School of Public Policy. From 2022-2024, he was the Director and CEO of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) and from 2013-22 the director of Bruegel. Over his career, he has contributed to research on European political economy, climate policy, geoeconomics, macroeconomics and foreign affairs. His work was published in academic journals such as Nature, Science, Research Policy, Energy Policy, Climate Policy, Journal of European Public Policy, Journal of Banking and Finance. His co-authored book “The macroeconomics of decarbonization” is published in Cambridge University Press.

    An experienced public adviser, he has been testifying twice a year since 2013 to the informal European finance ministers’ and central bank governors’ ECOFIN Council meeting on a large variety of topics. He also regularly testifies to the European Parliament, the Bundestag and speaks to corporate boards. In 2020, Business Insider ranked him one of the 28 most influential “power players” in Europe. From 2012-16, he was a member of the French prime minister’s Conseil d’Analyse Economique. In 2018, then IMF managing director Christine Lagarde appointed him to the external advisory group on surveillance to review the Fund’s priorities. In 2021, he was appointed member and co-director to the G20 High level independent panel on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response under the co-chairs Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Lawrence H. Summers and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. From 2013-22, he was an advisor to the Mastercard Centre for Inclusive Growth. He is a member of the Bulgarian Council of Economic Analysis, the European Council on Foreign Affairs and  advisory board of Elcano.

    Guntram joined Bruegel from the European Commission, where he worked on the macroeconomics of the euro area and the reform of euro area governance. Prior to joining the Commission, he worked in the research department at the Bundesbank, which he joined after completing his PhD in economics at the University of Bonn. He also worked as an external adviser to the International Monetary Fund. He is fluent in German, English, and French. His work is regularly published and cited in leading media. 

  • Karen Wilson

    Karen joined Bruegel in September 2012. She has worked in the Structural Policy Division of the Science, Technology and Industry Directorate at the OECD since 2009 and served as a Senior Fellow at the Kauffman Foundation from 2008-2012. She is an Associate Fellow at the Said Business School at Oxford University and a Visiting Lecturer at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga. Karen is the founder of GV Partners, a research and consulting firm she created in 2004. Her work at Bruegel focuses on entrepreneurship and innovation.

    Karen is a Board Member and Advisor of the European Foundation for Entrepreneurship Research (EFER), a member of the European Leadership Council for Harvard Business School, a Research and Policy Advisor for the U.K. Prince’s Trust Youth Business International (YBI), and an expert on the European Commission Horizon 2020 Access to Risk Finance Advisory Group. She is the author of a number of publications on entrepreneurship and finance.

    Prior to founding GV Partners, Karen worked with a leading international venture capital firm. Previously, she was part of the senior management team at the World Economic Forum and, before that, served as the Executive Director of the Global Initiative at Harvard Business School. She received, with honors, a Bachelors of Science in Mathematics and Management from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

    Declaration of interests 2015

  • Nuria Boot

    Nuria, a Dutch, Spanish and American citizen, worked as a Research Assistant in the area of Competition Policy. Before joining Bruegel, Nuria worked as a trainee on the Chief Economist Team at DG Competition, European Commission. At the CET she worked on the quantitative analysis of a merger case and on a state aid project.

    She studied Econometrics and Economics, specializing in Industrial Organization, at the University of Amsterdam. In her master thesis she studied the profitability of a cartel in interbank rate mechanisms, such as Euribor and Libor. Her bachelor thesis was on entry deterrence and mergers after patent expiration.

    Nuria’s research interests include competition policy, (empirical) industrial organization, regulation and innovation.

    She is fluent in Dutch, Catalan, Spanish and English.

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