ABSTRACT
The last financial crisis started in the United States in 2007 with the “subprime crisis” and then quickly propagated to the banking and financial systems of many countries. In the autumn of 2008, the extending of the financial crisis (with huge drops in the stock markets) and the deterioration of expectations led to the initial real effects (decrease in production, income, consumption and investment, and a fall in international trade). All this caused the so-called “Great Recession 2008–2009”, the biggest recession since the “Great Depression”. The crisis has persisted in 2009–2010, with widespread consequences for economic and labour market performance, especially in developed economies. It should be noted that there was a remarkable shift (since the beginning of 2010) – more pronounced in some countries than others – from a financial crisis in the private sector to a fiscal (sovereign debt) crisis, because of large increases in public deficits, mainly as a consequences of GDP and revenue declines accompanied by an increase in public expenditures recently due to the increase in interest rates on state bonds. 2 The impact on the labour market was pronounced, persistent in many cases, and with significant differences between countries, regions, sectors, age classes, etc.
