A Job Guarantee for Europe

Policy Brief

How can the EU create employment that reflects society’s needs?

As Europe faces structural unemployment, this policy brief by MEP Aurore Lalucq and Prof. Pavlina Tcherneva proposes the establishment of a public Job Guarantee for job creation in areas of unmet social need, prioritising care and environmental services.

The Guarantee would reduce the significant costs and deleterious effects of unemployment while providing the labour force and public sector the capacity to tackle social and environmental challenges. Building on successful local initiatives, discover how the Job Guarantee can be an effective environmental strategy, creating millions of new jobs and supporting a just transition of the workforce!

The European Job Guarantee is ambitious in scope and scale, but it is also based on real-world experiences.

Many direct employment programmes worldwide have provided employment to those most vulnerable. They have increased economic stability and reduced scarring effects. Moreover, evidence shows that the Job Guarantee enjoys significant public support.

The programme also serves as a powerful macroeconomic stabilising mechanism: it provides a strong contrast to traditional stabilisation policies, especially on the supply side, which have failed to stimulate job creation and left almost 13.5 million people unemployed in the EU. Ultimately, the job guarantee programme is an opportunity to create a truly transformative employment policy, which provides lasting, quality employment while delivering social and environmental good.