ABSTRACT

This chapter argues that unemployment in the EU will reach a record high at the beginning of the second decade of the twenty-first century. Most forecasts warn that even with the improving economic situation, unemployment will remain permanent. The economic situation is the most important key to solving the problems of the labor market. Therefore, the starting point for the considerations of this chapter is examining the impact of the recession and protracted economic stagnation on the changes in employment. Although macroeconomic trends are most influential in nature, the measures undertaken under the European Employment Strategy (EES) are definitely insufficiently intensive and flexible, which causes their low effectiveness. The causes of this poor performance, in our opinion, have their root in the genesis of the EES, i.e., partly in the decision-making inertia and, most significantly, in the excess of legitimate goals that are difficult to reconcile. In view of the over-regulation of the EU economy and narrowing the field of decisions by means of long-term action programs, which are insufficiently socially consulted, there remains little room for the EU and the member states to run flexible and discretionary employment policies.