Responses to Growing Unemployment and Mismatch between Skills and Job Openings in EU Member States
Paper by Søren Kaj Andersen
China is currently taking steps towards the establishment and development of employment political initiatives. These include raising the level of the existing unemployment support and expanding support systems so that much larger groups are covered by them. The challenge here is put in perspective when looking at the size of the Chinese labour market: The global workforce consists of nearly 3.2 billion people, of whom more than 800 million are Chinese. In other words, every fourth employee in this world is Chinese. Today about 125 million Chinese are covered by an unemployment insurance.
At an international seminar in Beijing 20-21 May Søren Kaj Andersen presented his paper Responses to Growing Unemployment and Mismatch between Skills and Job Openings in EU Member States. The paper deals with the European experiences in the fight against unemployment and the challenges ahead to match labour demand and skills.
The paper was presented at the seminar Mobilising Social Insurance in Support of Effective Employment Programmes. The seminar is part of a joint EU-China Programme on cooperation on social reforms, which began in 2006. The paper has been translated into Chinese.