COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION.3131st EMPLOYMENT, SOCIAL POLICY, HEALTH and CONSUMER AFFAIRS. Council meeting. Brussels, 1 and 2 December 2011.Welcomes the conclusions and analysis carried out by the Employment Committee in the report "Reaching the Employment target: progress and thematic surveillance" (see 17239/11) and as result of the first year of implementation of the European Employment Strategy in the context of Europe 2020 highlights the following: 1.1. 17.6 million new jobs need to be created in aiming to reach a 75% employment rate by 2020 in the European Union.
The EU as a whole and most Member States are likely to fall considerably short of their employment rate targets if no substantial policy change and incisive structural reforms take place. Alongside policies for increasing growth and improving general labour market conditions, this will require a sustained effort to stimulate job creation and encourage hiring, with a focus on the activation and labour market attachment of specific groups with particularly poor labour market outcomes such as low-skilled workers, women and older workers.
1.2. As identified in the Employment Performance Monitor (EPM) 20114, the high incidence of long-term unemployment, of youth unemployment and/or of young people neither in employment nor in education and training remains a challenge common to a majority of Member States. Resolute action is needed to increase the employability of the long-term and young unemployed, facilitating the transition between different employment statuses and from school to work.
1.3. Improving the labour market relevance, provision, adequacy and quality of education and training systems and addressing skills mismatches, both for young people and adults in and out of work, remains high on the reform agenda of almost all countries and is necessary to increase employment and productivity. Efforts need to continue to improve the accessibility to lifelong learning opportunities and the attractiveness of vocational education systems and apprenticeships schemes. On the long run, efforts should be made to up-skill the low skilled labour force so as to support upward transitions.
1.4. Tax and benefits systems should be reviewed to phase-out disincentives to women’s participation in the labour market. In particular, disincentives to employment of dual earner families or equal earners couples should be removed, well designed in-work benefits should be phased-in to diminish unemployment and inactivity traps and the transferability of allowances and joint elements of tax and benefits should be reviewed especially in the case of low-wage earners.
1.5. While labour demand depends on efficient macro and micro economic policies, measures to decrease non-wage labour costs such as targeted hiring subsidies or reduction of the tax wedge, taken in compliance to the Stability and Growth Pact, can have an important impact on labour demand of the low-skilled and young people.
1.6. Wage policies need to ensure that wages are in line with productivity, although other important determinants of competitiveness such as foreign external demand or innovation and technology have an equally important impact.
COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION.3131st EMPLOYMENT, SOCIAL POLICY, HEALTH and CONSUMER AFFAIRS. Council meeting. Brussels, 1 and 2 December 2011
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