The duration of unemployment has been exceptionally long in this business cycle, a development that could erode worker skills and decrease re-employment probabilities. In addition, it may take some time for those who are unemployed to move or retrain for the new jobs that the recovery will bring.
Experience also shows that in such a rapidly changing world, where the progress of science and technology, the globalisation process and the very profound structural and institutional changes in Europe are taking place simultaneously, we have to be humble before facts and figures and be ready to take them on board. My reflections are organised along five main lines.