Gurina A. D., Lakey I. M., Lobanova V. V.

Oles Honchar Dnipropetrovsk National University

THE PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT IN EUROPE

Unemployment is a socio-economic phenomenon, when part of the working population cannot use their knowledge and experience in social production. Unemployment increases in times of economic crisis and subsequent social depression resulting from the reduction in demand for a number of professions and professional work force.

Unemployment is continuing to set records in the European Union. D.Fridman American political scientist, said: "The global financial crisis of 2008 has turned into a global crisis of unemployment and changes in the political crisis in Europe, China and the United States. The problem of unemployment is becoming the key to the financial system. Today the middle class loses their income, and no matter what level of training you have, the probability of becoming unemployed is very high."

The main causes of unemployment are:

• changes in consumer demand for goods and services

• production decline

• the introduction of new technologies in enterprises

• the closure of uncompetitive, unprofitable business failures and victims;

The only solution for the unemployed is a welfare payment. Economic publication Challenges decided to find out the conditions, when EU citizens receiving unemployment benefits.

In France, the payout is 57.4% of salary for the period of dismissal. The maximum payout is $ 6161 per month. The benefit is paid for 2-4 months. In Germany, the payment is 60% or even 67% for people with children. 2215 euros are maximum paid in West Germany or the Euro 1940 in East Germany. The unemployed can wait for the support during 6-24 months. Affairs in Spain are worse of all: the highest unemployment rate in the euro area – 26.2% as of January. The most favorable situation in Austria – only 4.9% of the economically active citizens were unemployed in January.

There is depressing huge number of the unemployed among those who are about twenty years old. Youth unemployment reached 24.2% for the euro area, and in Greece and Spain, it has grown to 55.5%. This gives reason to say that the crisis in Europe shows a so called "lost generation", some experts believe. Failure in most cases due to lack of jobs and lack of experience, which get-it turns out, nowhere. And any education cannot guarantee that you can break out of this vicious circle.

Speaking about Ukraine, the growth rate is also noticeable. According to the State Statistics Service, there are 589,100 unemployed Ukrainians as of 1st March year 2013, and the real number of unemployed people – 2 million. The average size of financial assistance is 1069 hryvnia.

One thing is clear: the affairs of Europe are not as good as we think. High welfare payments have a negative impact on the state budget, social tensions is growing rapidly.

Measures to reduce unemployment may be as follows:

• employment in the enterprise directly by creating new jobs;

• encouraging private enterprise and encourage self-employment, small business development;

• retraining and training in scarce trades and professions.

From the above, it is clear that the problem of unemployment is a key question in the market economy and without solving it is impossible to establish effective operation of the economy.