European unemployment has fallen to a level not seen for more than 25 years. Long-term unemployment has been de­clining even more: Europe is no longer a place where half of all job-seekers have been on the dole for more than 12 months, as in the mid-1990s.

The disappearance of mass unemployment is not the result of a shrinking pool of labour; in fact the average employment rate in the European Union has increased by more than 6 per cent in 10 years. This is the only area in which Europe is approaching the ambitious economic targets set at the Lisbon summit in 2000.