Low Population Mobility in European Union

A recent Economist article discusses the low cross-border population mobility within the European Union despite large variations in the unemployment rate across European nations.  This variation in unemployment rate can be seen in the first chart from the article, which shows Spain at approximately 23% unemployment as of March 2012 and Austria at less than 5%.  However, as the second graph from the article shows, few Europeans migrate within their countries and even fewer across countries in the European Union relative to the US, Canada and Australia.  The article suggests that this low mobility could be a result of language barriers, higher transaction fees and taxes for home-buyers and disincentives to move from large unemployment benefits, among other things.

One in Two Youth in Spain is Unemployed

Business Insider’s Chart of the Day for May 2^nd highlighted a graph from Scott Barber and Thomson Reuters depicting youth unemployment rates in Europe.  Greece and Spain both possessed the highest rate, with more than one in two youth being unemployed.  These two nations are followed by Portugal Italy, and Ireland, with youth unemployment rates of 36.1%, 35.9%, and 30.3% respectively.  Germany, on the other hand, has weathered the economic recession quite well, and its youth unemployment rate has actually decreased since the recession began.  In comparison to the United States’ 16.4% rate, Germany, Malta, Austria, and the Netherlands are the only nations in the EU27 with a lower youth unemployment rate.  Overall, the Euro area possesses a 22.1% youth unemployment rate.