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Danish graduates continue to struggle with high unemployment

Lucie Rychla
January 30th, 2017


This article is more than 7 years old.

Companies are reluctant to invest in creating new jobs, contends researcher

Recent graduates in Denmark struggle with high unemployment, reveals a new analysis by the Danish economic policy institute Arbejderbevægelsens Erhvervsråd (AE).

According to the think-tank, unemployment rates among recent graduates are twice as high today than before the financial crisis.

Over 13 percent of all new graduates in 2015 were jobless six or more months after they had completed their education, while the rate was only 6 percent some 10-15 years ago.

“The crisis is not over yet when we look at the graduates’ unemployment [rate],” Mie Dalskov Pihl, the chief analyst at AE, told Information.

“For the first time, we can also see that the group with the highest unemployment rate are those [who have completed] a short-term higher education [course], which is something we need to keep an eye on.”

READ MORE: Denmark has fewer long-term unemployed than the rest of Europe

Companies not hiring 
According to Pihl, 19.4 percent of graduates from short-term higher education courses – especially business academies – were not able to find a job six months after they had graduated in 2015.

The same applied to 18.5 percent of university graduates.

Researcher Henning Jørgensen from Aalborg University contends private companies do not reinvest profits in creating new jobs, but instead spend the extra money on quick investments or higher pay-outs for shareholders.


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”