Per each young person who does not work, the state loses by up to 589 lei every month. This money can be collected as income taxes and as health and social insurance contributions paid by salary earners. Thus, Moldova loses annually 5.69 million lei because taxes on this segment are not collected. Moreover, the state pays unemployment benefit to young people out of work, says a study of the competitiveness of young people on the labor market, which was presented by the National Youth Council of Moldova (CNTM) in a news conference at IPN.
The Council’s secretary general Alex Petrov said that one of the causes why the young people cannot find a job is the lack of professional orientation or professional orientation that is not correlated with the real needs of the labor market. As a result, joblessness among young people increases. Over the last few years, the jobless rate has fluctuated, the young people from rural areas being the most affected.
According to Alex Petrov, at policy level there should be provided more solutions for the professional orientation of young people. A solution is to include the discipline “Professional orientation” in schools. This way, the young people will be better informed about the employment and remuneration opportunities after the competition of studies.
CNTM chairman Doru Curosu said informal education instruments can be used to professionally orient the young people. The implementation of informal education for stimulating the development of young people is welcome as this education develops skills and abilities that the young people cannot acquire at school. The state must lay special emphasis on this.
He added that there are a number of policy instruments for stimulating youth employment. At European level, such policies are mainly related to internship, training, work experience accumulated during internship or specific abilities gained during training courses. These instruments can be considered youth employment mechanisms. The state should also become involved in promoting entrepreneurship among young people. The stimulation of competition and innovation strengthens the young people’s ability to satisfy the needs of the market economy, including being independent when starting a business.
CNTM youth policy coordinator Galina Petcu said higher education does not guarantee and does not facilitate the employment of young graduates. Statistics show that the jobless rate among people aged between 15 and 24 is higher for young people with higher education and secondary education.
More than 15,000 young people didn’t have a job in Moldova in 2013.
The study “How competitive are the young people on the labor market?” forms part of the Online Community Game for Reducing Young Unemployment Project that is implemented by the CNTM in cooperation with Emerson College of the U.S., with support from USAID.
