engleski

Unemployment in EU and Transition Economies - Causes and Proposals

The main purposes of this paper are: a) to analyse the unemployment problem in the EU and in the new transition economies, focusing on the Croatian case ; b) to recommend some policies in order to reduce unemployment and to enhance Croatia&#8217 ; ; s chances to a successful accession to the EU and its labour market standards. European unemployment, which, began increasing steadily in the 1970s, expanded during the 1990s. While in the 1970s the discussion of the rise of unemployment focused primarily on shocks, the persistence of high unemployment led to a shift in focus to labour market institutions. Indeed, many discussions of EU unemployment ignore shocks altogether, and focus exclusively on labour-market rigidities. An important part of the unemployment problem in the EU is also an inadequate rate of job creation. This problem is visible even more in transition countries. In those countries a sharp increase in unemployment is considered an unavoidable price that must be paid for the restoration of market economies. The majority of transition economies were faced with high and growing unemployment rates. The situation is even worse and more complex in Croatia, and its solution should be recognised as one of the main macroeconomic priorities.

unemployment problem; persistent unemployment; transition countries

nije evidentirano