Employment in Europe 1996 [antikvár]

Foreword Foreword The purpose of this report is to provide a firm Hnk between our policy objectives and the reality of hard data on trends, progress and problems. Our most important task is the modernisation of Social and Economic Europe. This year's report tracks our efforts in this task. It stresses that modernisation is not just about technology. It is also about equipping people and institutions to ensure that the process of integration brings real benefits to all our citizens. The pace of change in Europe causes insecurity among people. It can cause our institutions, sometimes, to look like puzzled spectators, rather than the managers of change. To address this, we need to create understanding among, and partnership between, people and institutions. Above all, we need facts, to enable us to understand the dynamics of change, so that change can be fashioned to address our employment objectives. There is much at stake here, from the need for a strong push on job creation, and stronger support to those unemployed, from the Dublin Council, to ensuring that the IGC outcome is both positive for employment, and is seen to be so, especially by citizens. The report is published at a critical juncture in our efforts to address the employment problems of the Union. We have made real progress in this work, on many fronts, from the macro-economic stability the Union has created, to the development of a European Employment Strategy — building on the aspirations of the White Paper on Growth, Competitiveness and Employment, and President Banter's Pact for Confidence. We have much stronger and more systematic, cooperation with, and between, Member States and Ministries in this endeavour. But, while we do have many of the building blocks in place for sustain-able, employment-generating growth, the edifice is far from complete. The commitment is not yet total, nor coordinated enough to move seriously towards full employment. The importance of the social dimension as a productive factor in enabling change and in shaping the civilised society essential to a healthy economy is not yet fully appreciated. This must be factored into the equation more combatively, if the Union is to progress its work, from the IGC to EMU. The social dimension has to be recognised as an integral part of shaping the macro-economic stability and structural reform in order to attack, in a sustainable way, Europe's high unemployment. This means using the strong economic performance of Europe as a vehicle for making the structural changes needed, across our employment systems. It means also re-examining the policies and institutional frameworks which do not, at present, reflect the nature of working life now confronting us. All too often, they hark back to a working life based on old assumptions, of mass production processes, a mainly male work force, with a single job and skill for life. The persistence of high and unacceptable levels of unemployment in the EU, and the damage this causes to social cohesion, as well as the consequent strain on public finances, serve only to underline the urgency of fully implementing the European Emplojrment Strategy. This long term strategy, based on sound macro-economic conditions, and their rigorous application to the modernisation of our employment and social systems, offers the only path to raising significantly employment levels, and to reducing radically, unemployment in Europe. Perhaps the most important element of achieving this objective, of a productive competitive economy, into the 21" century, is the creation of a highly skilled, flexible workforce. This concerns equipping and deploying correctly the productive potential of the whole workforce, and, within that, engaging fully the productive and creative potential of women. Ten years from now, 80% of the technology workers use today will be obsolete, replaced with more advanced technologies. By that time, 80% of the workforce will be operating on the basis of formal education and training more than 10 years old. m m -3-