Sustainability and Employability in the Time of COVID-19. Youth, Education and Entrepreneurship in EU Countries

Abstract

This paper aims to identify several changes in the labor market structure in COVID-19 pandemic times. The context of the research is represented by the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic in the economic field, especially at the labor market level. This difficult situation could generate a negative impact in the sphere of traditional jobs and economic sectors. The main challenge for sustainable development in this new global situation is represented by human sustainability. Related to human sustainability, we emphasized the role played by the labor market and employability in mantling an optimal function at the social and economic level. For measuring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the economic sphere, we used a quantitative design based on descriptive and inferential statistics. The research variables are represented by unemployment rates in the EU-28, employability rates, educational levels, gender, economic growth, labor mobility, material deprivation, economic freedom, and human development indicators. Empirical findings present the situation of a deep economic crisis generated by economic degrowth and by high levels of unemployment rates in the EU-28. Moreover, we have observed several predictors of employability in the new pandemic context as: material deprivation by age (in the field of young people), employment rate by education (tertiary education), and economic freedom. Another important finding is related to the gender perspective. Statistical correlations estimate a positive linear correlation between gender (women) and low rates of employability in the EU-28. All these empirical results could prove valuable for scholars interested in the relations between employability and sustainability and for political decision makers involved in the effort of reducing the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic within national and trans-national economic systems.

Reducing Inequalities within and among EU Countries—Assessing the Achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Targets (SDG 10)

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Post-COVID-19 strategies for higher education institutions in dealing with unknown and uncertainties

“…Involvement in sustainable development can reduce future shocks in economic and social systems (Gavriluţȃ et al, 2022). This issue was further elaborated on by the same expert.…”

Temporal Variation of SARS-CoV-2 Levels in Wastewater from a Meat Processing Plant

“…Several studies showed a correlation between SARS-CoV-2 levels in wastewater and positive COVID-19 cases reported from clinic testing or public records, suggesting that wastewater-based monitoring can provide information for large-scale dynamic of the pandemic [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ]. Although it is important to investigate the COVID-19 prevalence and dynamic in communities and cities scales, with the negative economic impact of the COVID-19 around the world, the interests of business owners lay in the presence of the viruses and infected individuals in the local facility, which is crucial for updating the control procedures in a timely manner to respond to the decreasing or rising risks and ensuring the safety of the workers during the business recovery stage [ 10 , 11 , 12 ].…”