Early, active measures to fight youth unemployment

The report 'Nordic countries' Anti Youth Unemployment Measures' maps and analyses measures initiated by the Nordic countries on a national level to reduce youth unemployment in the short and long term. 

The report was commissioned by the Nordic labour ministers and written by consultancy firm Rambøll. The conclusions will be debated by the Nordic Council of Ministers. 

The report identifies shared challenges and holds up several initiatives from various countries as examples to learn from, while warning not to conclude that these initiatives are necessarily very good examples. It is very hard to analyse just how measures work.

Important shared knowledge - what actually works, according to the report: 

Early educational initiatives

All of the Nordic countries agree a lack of education increases the risk of unemployment. The mapping demonstrates how Norway and Sweden both have initiated measures early on in youths' education. Norway has been working to prevent early college drop-outs while also spending a lot of resources on making sure secondary school children have necessary basic skills. Norway and Sweden both focus on reading, writing and mathematics.    

An individually tailored educational system

Denmark has long focused on alternative educations, like practical training, and it looks like this too has led to lower youth unemployment. Denmark and Iceland's schools of production are examples of individually targeted educations. Apprenticeships have long been important in Denmark, Finland and Norway. 

Efficient follow-up

There is not a lot of analysis of how the Nordic countries follow up youths who fall outside of the labour market and the educational system. Researchers are struggling to find meaningful conclusions about how to perform such follow-up. They do, however, underline the importance of cooperation in this area between schools, job centres and social services. Several of the Nordic countries' municipalities are responsible for the follow-up of youths who are at risk of dropping out of college. Yet the report concludes it is not enough that municipalities are responsible to keep themselves informed. The follow-up must be linked to activation measures.

Early action tailored to the individual target group

There are many tools to help youths - especially college leavers - find work. Labour market measures should include economic incentives and the measures should kick in as soon as possible when a young person becomes unemployed. Early and targeted measures happen in Denmark, where age and education determines what kind of measures are implemented. Finland has a range of measures targeted at various groups of youths, i.e. the social guarantee for under 25s who have been unemployed for more than three months in a row, apprenticeships for over 15s and the sanssi card which grants wage subsidies to employers who hire under 30s.

Combined activities

Activities to help youths seek jobs should be combined with other activities if they in themselves don't get the youth into employment. Sweden's job guarantee and Norway's youth guarantee are good examples of integrated activities which use job seeking as a starting point.

Importance of further education

In a recession it makes sense to establish more university places, like Sweden and Finland have done.

Cross-sector activities

Getting young people into work or education demands cross-sector cooperation. Iceland does this with their Young People measures and in Finland regional and local parties cooperate on workshops. In Norway NAV is being given free reigns on a local level. Sweden's Navigatorcentrum is held up as another good example of local cooperation.

Read the report here (in Norwegian)