25 March 2004 - Policies for full employment – Reforming European Labour Markets
Work and Pensions Secretary Andrew Smith today welcomed a new report which makes recommendations on how to improve employment rates in Europe.
The report, Policies for Full Employment, shows that only two-thirds of people between the ages of 15 and 64 in the 15 European Union Member States are in work.
Europe is at risk of missing its target of 70 per cent employment by 2010 unless changes are made to the employment policies of Member States.
The report, published on the eve of the Spring European Council, argues that helping older people to remain in work, and inactive people to return to jobs, can play a vital role in raising employment levels. It was written by members of the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics Richard Layard and Stephen Nickell.
The UK has already exceeded the overall target for 2010 and also has a lower unemployment rate than the United States.
More people in the UK are in jobs than ever before and for the first time in nearly half a century it has the highest employment and lowest unemployment rates of the major industrialised countries.
Since 1997, investment in New Deal programmes and the introduction of Jobcentre Plus has helped to increase the number of people in work by more than 1.5 million.
Mr Smith said: “This report is very timely as over the next two days Europe’s leaders will be discussing how we can get Europe back on the path to full employment.
“It highlights the crucial importance of active policies such as the UK’s New Deal in helping the inactive, as well as unemployed people, to find and retain employment.
“As the recent report of the European Employment Taskforce under Wim Kok made clear, without such policies Europe will not achieve the 70 per cent employment rate to which it was committed at the Lisbon Summit in 2000.
Notes for editors
- A full copy of Policies for Full Employment can be found at http://www.dwp.gov.uk/publications/dwp/2004/pol_full_emp/
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