Lithuanian youth integration into labour market: problems and solutions

The labour market situation in recent years showed an increasing scope of youth unemployment that exceeds the overall unemployment level; however it varies from one region of the world to another. In the last years, the youth unemployment rate in the European Union and Lithuania has been unacceptably high; increasing long-term unemployment of the youth is a particular cause for concern. In Lithuania, the problem of youth involvement in the labour market has been analysed since the restoration of independence, as the market situation has been deteriorating and unemployment increasing yearly. The youth unemployment problem became especially acute in the years of recession, when in 2011 every tenth individual aged 15-24 was unemployed. The paper examines the trends of the youth situation in the Lithuanian labour market and measures and initiatives applied by various institutions of the country to promote youth employment (e.g. entrepreneurship), and presents the fi ndings of the empirical research carried out to analyse the obstacles for the young people to become engaged in entrepreneurship