Analysis of Causes and Consequences of the Youth Unployment in the EU

The EU labour markets show a number of long-term imbalances and asymmetries, which are refl ected in a persisting high unemployment rate. A group that is particularly affected by the high unemployment rate are young people. The aim of the paper is to analyse causes and consequences of the youth unemployment in the EU and compare them with the measures. We test 894 POLITICKÁ EKONOMIE, 7, 2015 following hypothesis: "The high rigidity of the labour markets in the EU increases the rate of youth unemployment." Further, we analyse the correlation between the rigidity of the EU labour markets and youth unemployment rate. There is some evidence that Employment Protection Legislation index (EPL) is one of the key factors infl uencing youth unemployment. However, the results have differed significantly the according to the various regions (socio-economics models) of the EU. In the end of the paper the research leads to the conclusion that if the education systém allows a smooth transition between school and work, a higher rate of EPL doesn't increase youth unemployment. In order to reflect high complexity of the problem is the examination of the systems approach.