Young and without a future

The youth employment crisis can be seen most acutely across Southern Europe, where young people, despite their cultural and linguistic differences, have similar stories of hopelessness, fear, anxiety and anger.

In Spain, college students and recent graduates who call themselves Juventud sin Futuro — or youth without a future — have taken to the streets to fight government policies and social cuts that affect young people. Carles Vallecillo Folguera, 24, who got his degree in computers from the Polytechnical University of Catalonia, said he once thought that he would have a stable life after he graduated. Instead, he has found himself hopping from temporary job to temporary job to support his parents and his sister, who all lost their jobs over the past year.

Graphic

Unemployment weighs on European youth

More business news

North Carolina’s big tilt to the right

Michael A. Fletcher

State Republicans are pushing a sweeping conservative agenda, and opponents can do little to stop them.

TechBit: Moldiv gets crafty with your photos

Hayley Tsukayama

Use the pictures on your smartphone to make collages and share them with friends and family.

TechBit: Whisper helps you bare your soul

Hayley Tsukayama

Got a secret? Whisper lets you share it, anonymously, if you’re into that kind of thing.

More business news

“Everything is very dark, and I feel like things are getting worse,” Folguera said.

A few hundred miles to the east in Italy, 24-year-old Tatiana Cavola, who received a degree in foreign languages at the prestigious University of Rome last year and had hoped to be a teacher, is working as a cashier and food-prep assistant at a McDonald’s. “Everybody says I’m lucky because I have a good job. . . . It’s true, I am lucky, but if you think this could be the job of my life, it is very sad,” she said.

In Greece, Gjoni says his 42-year-old mother got laid off from her waitress job two years ago and his 52-year-old father, who works for a road-construction company, hasn’t gotten paid in five months because the company is bankrupt. Gjoni loathes the idea of leaving Greece, but he thinks he has no choice if he wants to find a way to support his family. He’s applying for a visa to join his uncle in the United States, where he works as a school bus driver.

“Greece is now a country just for vacation,” Gjoni said.

Despite the depressing outlook, some youths say there are glimmers of hope in how young people are responding. In Portugal, for instance, where the government dissolved the culture ministry as part of its agreement to cut spending in return for an international bailout, youths have formed art collectives and staged impromptu concerts.

In Italy and Spain, many jobs before the crisis guaranteed lifelong employment, so there was no need to be entrepreneurial. Now, young people have put a renewed emphasis on innovation.

At the Madrid Vallecas Incubator, Rocio Herrero Rivero, who is in her 20s, says her parents thought she was crazy when she decided to start her own fashion company last year. Herrero Rivero, whose Issie Organics line ranges from T-shirts to wool coats made of eco-friendly fabrics, said it’s been a struggle and she has used all her savings and money from family and friends. But she is proud to have sold more than 50 pieces.

“Everything has a good and bad side,” she said. “The crisis is pushing Spaniards to think of new ways of thinking of ideas and of creating. There’s no fear in going out on your own because it’s not like you have any other choice.”