Consequently, young job-seekers are often only offered temporary employment contracts which are easy to terminate when economic activity slackens. 2. Legal or negotiated minimum or entry-level wages for young workers are often relatively high in those countries. This can be an obstacle to employment. In Germany, by contrast, it is customary for apprentices to receive a distinctly lower starting wage. 3.
In many of the crisis-hit countries, vocational training is mainly school-based and is often not sufficiently geared to enterprises’ needs in terms of labour and qualifications. In countries with dual training systems such as Austria, Switzerland and Germany, on the other hand, youth unemployment is very low by international standards.