BRUSSELS, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) economic recovery remains frail and future employment developments are as yet uncertain, according to the European Commission's latest quarterly review on employment released Monday.
"Recent trends show that the economic recovery remains fragile and improvements are still timid. There is growth, but we still need to make sure that it becomes sustainable. Far from lowering our guard, we need to keep up the efforts to support macro-economic and employment recovery in the EU," said Laszlo Andor, EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion.
The review also took a look at differences in income inequality among EU member states, and underlined the importance of investing in skills over the long-term to increase the employability of workers throughout their working lives.
According to the review, unemployment is still close to historically high levels. The long-term unemployed represent a large and growing share of total unemployment, with almost 13 million people having been unemployed for more than a year. Moreover, one in three unemployed people have spent more than two years without a job.
Meanwhile, youth unemployment continues to be very high in countries such as Greece and Spain. Among those who have a job, almost half are on temporary job contracts and nearly a quarter work part-time. The review accordingly called for efforts to ensure that every young person gets help finding either a decent job, or the opportunity to find training, experience or learning geared toward getting one in the future.
Moreover, with the economic crisis, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and disposable household incomes declined across the EU and have not yet returned to pre-crisis levels in many countries, according to the review.
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