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Youth unemployment bucking generally positive trend

Stephen Gadd
November 1st, 2018


This article is more than 6 years old.

Despite the fact Denmark is enjoying an almost unprecedented period of high employment, it is not all good news on the job front

More consideration should be given to the relationship between a course of study and a job, a union recommends (photo: flickr/Marie-Louise Valsted)

Based on figures from the national statistics keeper Danmarks Statistik, the trade union for business leaders, Ledernes Hovedorganisation, has calculated that unemployment amongst young people has not been as high as it is now for decades.

The figures reveal that 7.7 percent of 25 to 29-year-olds are unemployed. This is almost twice as many as in the population as a whole, where the figure is 3.9 percent, DR Nyheder reports.

READ ALSO: Booming economy gives record numbers of jobs but labour shortage looms

The trend has been noticeable for some time. Before the financial crisis when unemployment was also low, there was a general level of 3.4 percent, but 4.5 percent of 25 to 29-year-olds were unemployed.

More relevance wanted
To alleviate the situation, the union would like to see a greater correlation between the requirements of the labour market and the courses taken by students during their education.

“It’s very unfortunate for the young people themselves as well as being bad for society in general at a time when we are short of labour in a variety of areas,” said the union’s head analyst Kim Møller Laursen.

“Neither the young people or employers are well served by a course that can’t be used immediately when a person is finished. So all educational courses ought to be fine-tuned to a much higher degree to suit the needs of the labour market,” he added.


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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.”