European Job Guarantee: Targeting the Triple Crises Facing Post-COVID Europe

The EU in 2020 is in the midst of a triple crisis of unemployment, public health and environmental collapse. These aspects are deeply intertwined and should be tackled together, since they all reflect structural problems of the European labor market. Job Guarantee is the proposed fiscal tool, since a growing body of empirical evidence shows that labor market policies targeting unemployment have considerable positive impact, beyond direct social aid. We suggest creation of a European Job Guarantee (EU JG) as a policy tool for post-pandemic recovery. EU JG would be a programme of publicly funded, high work standard employment of last resort, based on local economic needs (including industrial transition). Pilot projects should be set up; the proposed regions are the decarbonising regions in transition. We analyse the possibilities for job creation and suggest an outline of the pilot programme.