The History & Status of Unemployment in Europe.
The history of work may have begun centuries before written records but from what we know today, obtaining and keeping work was never easy.
Throughout Europe’s bloody events that swept throughout the continent with attacks, seizures, power, wars, disease, poverty for many and opulence for the few, finding work during medieval times or the Middles Ages, to support one’s family was always about who you knew and if your family had money. Servitude was rampant during feudal times with lords overseeing their dependents in living and working clusters for survival. Slaves or serfs, as they were called, did the work necessary for basic needs, such as farming, and the lords in the castles provided protection against foreign invaders, terrorists of that time, but they had no autonomy or control over their own destinies.
Apprenticeships flourished in the Middle Ages. One-on-one, you could learn a trade such as silversmith, leather-making, carpentry and others, under the guidance of one who was a Master of his trade. A Master attained such status after years of working in the field and “mastering” his trade. Your family, however, had to have money to sponsor you. You were required to join a guild in those days, forerunners of today’s unions, and pay for your entrance. Guilds were already in existence in ancient times in Asia. There’s probably nothing new under the sun and there were most likely dry spells when no one was hiring—unless you knew somebody.
Only those who worked and the wealthy business people controlled everything in the towns. They had the status and respect with their symbols of stone houses and who could build the talents and widest, bright colored structures, were the ones who were admired, revered and respected. If you were poor, you only had a wooden house which was subject to fire. Many rows of wooden houses were lost in fires back then.
Despite the storybook look of sleepy towns with castles and the awe of towering holy structures with over-the-top adornment, it belies the hardships and cruel realities of days gone by. There were walls between invaders and walls between the very royal rich memorialized in history and the many more poor unknowns. The unemployed fell to the way in those days—if you were lucky enough not to be tortured and punished for unproven crimes in the cruelest, most brutal ways known to man—or fighting in some of the many ongoing battles and uprisings (remember the French Revolution and the Storming of the Bastille later on in another millennium because people were starving and oppressed by the royalty of the day?) between tribes and countries. There was no official department of any government in those days that dispensed any kind of welfare, and poor, sick beggars, orphans and widows littered the streets which had no running sanitation. You can imagine the smell of things back then! Benevolent wealthy people would help and saintly individuals would open hospitals for their care. These structures are still standing—in great shape, I might add—in many countries in Europe.
Today, we seem civilized, with our running water, unemployment insurance benefits and public assistance, but we are still plagued with similar issues of the haves vs. the have-nots. We just have to look at our country and around the world today to see unrest over job situations and economics…recent uprisings and riots in Greece and Thailand confirm that. Greeks who are civil servants must now pay 40% of their pensions through earned salary and the retirement age was raised and two months of salary will be cut to meet the debt. Talk of European debt and unrest dominates the forefront of news along with the oil spill and volcanic eruptions.
Yet you have a country like Liechtenstein, one of the world’s smallest principalities (if not the smallest, like Luxemburg, Monaco and the Vatican) with zero unemployment. Switzerland only has 2% of its population out of work. On the other hand, Germany has an 8.9% unemployment statistic, according to the local tour guide and he reports that the statistic is not accurate, that there are more. (Sound familiar?) And Eastern Germany is worse than Western Germany. Forty percent of the East is out of work and those in the West are better qualified. As in the U.S., German government offers tax credits—but for a period of 10 years—to companies that move from the West to the East, to develop economically and build up that section of the country. But as the tour guide said, he believes it will take generations to improve conditions.
On the bright side, a look at how unemployment is handled in modern Germany: Five years ago, 80% of one’s earned salary is paid for by unemployment! In other words, if you had made $100,000/year, the government unemployment benefit would be $80,000/year. Recently, the German government cut those benefits to about 50-60% of one’s earned salary before job loss. There is talk of further cuts to this amount.
They called unemployment insurance “taxpayer subsidies.” The government also pays for necessities such as housing and food. So said and quoted German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble in German media, “We have to adjust our social security systems in a way that they motivate people to accept regular work and do not give counterproductive incentives.” Also at threat of loss, is six weeks vacation and retirement at 60.
If you think getting half your former salary in unemployment benefits sounds like a deal, you’ll be surprised to know that the government also pays for television because television is considered a necessity to keep up with what is happening in the world while one is out of work! In ways, they are still ahead of the game, despite looming cuts.
After about a year, the German unemployment office wants to know what you have been doing that you are still out of work (nothing new here up until now) and mandates your appearance to try and match you with jobs, but the jobs are always at a lesser level educationally and skill-wise than what you are qualified for or have worked as. And he said, people like himself, who are university graduates, would never think of using the unemployment office! The nice thing is that many European countries offer free or very low cost college educations compared to the U.S., but getting into the universities is extremely competitive and in Germany, in particular, your parents and school decide if you are “college material.”
In Denmark, employers can hire and fire workers with financial security and training to prepare for new jobs. Denmark has a 7.5 unemployment rate while Sweden and Finland see 8.9%, like Germany. The average unemployment rate in Europe overall is 9.6%. Norway unemployment benefits are funded by oil (ooh…dirty word…don’t say that here!) and they have one of Europe’s lowest unemployment rates, coming in at a measly 3%. Spain is cutting aid to disabled and much of Europe is trying to change its welfare systems and accommodate burgeoning immigration. In Portugal, you must accept any job that pays 10% more than unemployment benefits. I’m sure some of you who are long-term unemployed and searching would be happy to have that opportunity.
Despite similarities and differences in countries around the world, there were no times through the ages that were easy, in matters of survival and employment. So, in borrowing a phrase from a Styx song, “these are the best of times,” this time in history and recorded civilization is all we have to try and make the best of things. One thing is for certain: life was never/is never easy and the problems were and are the same, no matter in what time you live or where you tread.
-By The Job Enthusiast
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