you are basically right in your analysis regarding the situation in the labour market
in fact the situation is continuing to deteriorate even if it is at a more moderate pace than in the past
we are also starting to see more consistent signs of stabilisation in some member states
but it has been nine months since the economy started to recover from deep recession and it may take some time this year before the fragile pick-up in economic activity has an impact on reversing the trend in the labour market
that is why our priority is now employment
for young people unemployment is particularly worrying as you said
we have more than twenty of young people unemployed in europe
that is why we have launched three initiatives for this year
two of them i have already mentioned
there is also the youth employment initiative
among the specific initiatives that we are going to develop is precisely the step-up of vocational training through more apprenticeship schemes financed by the european social fund and also fostering high-quality learning experience in the workplace after graduation the so-called traineeships including the possibility of traineeships in other member states
