Crisis won’t be over until we tackle joblessness

One of the most fundamental rights of any person who wants to work is to be given the opportunity to do so.

Unfortunately, large tracts of the developed world are not providing that opportunity at the moment. Today the unemployment rate in the EU 27 stands at 11% of the labour force, equivalent to 26.5m people, and in the eurozone the rate stands at 12.2%, or 19.3m people. In Spain the rate stands at 26.9%; 26.8% in Greece; 13.7% in Ireland; 12.2% in Italy and 10.9% in France.

These are frightening levels of unemployment and potentially represent a very dangerous situation from a political stability perspective. Unemployed men in their 20s have been responsible for many atrocities over the years, not least the rise of Nazism and the subsequent horrific war.