The economic crisis in Europe has also an effect on unemployment, and especially youth-unemployment. In Europe, the average unemployment rate for persons under 25 years is 22.3%. This is not only an economic problem. Youth unemployment has severe social impacts on society. Even if the economy will grow again in some years, these young people hardly get a chance to find a new occupation. Especially in Spain, in the last year many young people who left school started to work in the booming construction industry without looking for a good education. Now they don't have a job and no education. It is nearly amounting to a lost generation.

But the development in Europe is very different; in Spain (51.4%) and Greece (46.6%), every second young person has no job.  On the other side of this list we find the Netherlands (8.6%) Austria (8.3%) and Germany (8.1%). Bavaria currently has a youth unemployment rate of only 2.4% and in many regions companies do not find young employees at all. In Lower-Bavaria, craftsmen already invited apprentices from Bulgaria, and the number of immigrants from states from south Europe almost doubled last year.

One of the reasons why Germany and especially Bavaria has remarkably better results is a difference in the professional education system. Germany has traditionally a dual education system (Duales Ausbildungssystem) which combines apprenticeships in a company and vocational education at a vocational school in one course. This system is common in service and industrial occupations. Actually this system is also a reason why Germany has lower academic rate.