On 8 November 2023, the European Commission presented a new growth plan for the WB6. The plan provides opportunities to boost socioeconomic convergence in the region and offers significant additional financial support. It aims to bring forward some of the economic benefits to the pre-accession period to build stronger, more resilient economies and provide day-to-day economic benefits for businesses, workers and consumers alike. The plan covers a broad range of topics that will help improve the situation of young people in the WB6.
 

In 2021, the governments of the WB6 made a commitment to adopt, test and mainstream Youth Guarantee schemes to address long-standing challenges of youth joblessness and social exclusion risks. In these countries, the importance of implementing Youth Guarantee schemes, modelled on the European Youth Guarantee, is highlighted by evidence which shows that most countries that implemented measures to support youth employment during the COVID-19 pandemic already had a national youth employment strategy.
 

The 2017 European Pillar of Social Rights set out 20 principles to guide the Member States ‘towards a strong social Europe that is fair, inclusive and full of opportunity’. The Pillar is being delivered through a wide-ranging set of policy packages alongside the implementation of plans for a just transition towards a climate-neutral and digitalised society.

• Throughout the region, employment rates are lower for young people aged 15 to 24 than for the total working-age population (15–64).

• The difference between youth and working-age employment levels is larger in the WB6 than it is in Türkiye and the European Union (EU) as a whole.

• In all seven countries, the youth employment rate is lower among women than among men. This is most accentuated in Türkiye.

• While overall unemployment levels have come closer to the EU average in recent years, this change is less pronounced for young people aged 15 to 24, among whom unemployment remains a pressing issue.

• Although the countries have experienced some progress in reducing youth unemployment, the potential effects of increasing inactivity in the labour market alongside growing emigration trends render the extent of progress that has been achieved difficult to measure.

• The proportion of young people aged 15 to 24 not in employment, education or training (NEET) differs widely within the seven countries, and ranges from 13 % in Serbia to 33 % in Kosovo.

• In Kosovo, Montenegro and North Macedonia, NEET rates have risen substantially, whereas in the other countries such rates have fallen over time. Türkiye has shown the most improvement over time, although young people in the country still face significant challenges, especially young women.

• Young people in the WB6 and Türkiye are significantly more likely to take up temporary work than workers aged 25–64 in the region.

• Compared with the EU average, self-employment is a much more prominent trend in the labour market of the WB6 and Türkiye.

• The WB6 have made headway in certain aspects of job quality. This is demonstrated by the high numbers of young respondents to the European Working Conditions Telephone Survey (EWCTS) 2021 who indicated that their jobs were highly resourced and less extremely demanding, often surpassing the EU benchmark.

• Young workers in the WB6 are much more likely to receive social support at work and, in most countries, are significantly more engaged in the work that they do. Despite overt challenges, young workers appear more content and can adapt to changes in their workplace.

• The region still faces some key issues, working time arrangements being one of them. A much more sizeable proportion of young workers work more than 48 hours per week in the Western Balkans than in the EU.

• Women’s work lies more at the extreme ends of job quality than men’s. Some notable issues pertain to job intensity, where evidence indicates that young women work at considerably higher speeds than young men. Issues also persist in gender segregation in the workplace, despite improvements.