Stresses that an older labour force and longer working lives can make a positive contribution to the recovery and future growth; considers that, for (older) employees performing physically and/or mentally demanding work, a dynamic labour market must offer creative solutions such as greater flexibility in the statutory retirement age, part-time pensions, adapted working conditions, encouraging lifelong learning, improving job-seeking services or movement from one job to another, to strike a lasting balance between the requirements of employment and the capacities of workers; considers there to be a need for an active policy to prevent d ...[+++]iscrimination on grounds of age by monitoring the correct implementation of Directives 2000/78/EC and 2006/54/EC and promoting a European culture of active aging ensuring that older people have a life of vitality and dignity; calls on Member States to combine penalties for labour market discrimination with incentives for employers to create an inclusive labour market; calls on the Member States, in the context of the reforms and the extension of working life and with the assistance of the Commission, to implement more effectively the directives on health and safety at work;

26. Stresses that an older labour force and longer working lives can make a positive contribution to the recovery and future growth; considers that, for (older) employees performing physically and/or mentally demanding work, a dynamic labour market must offer creative solutions such as greater flexibility in the statutory retirement age, part-time pensions, adapted working conditions, encouraging lifelong learning, improving job-seeking services or movement from one job to another, to strike a lasting balance between the requirements of employment and the capacities of workers; considers there to be a need for an active policy to preve ...[+++]nt discrimination on grounds of age by monitoring the correct implementation of Directives 2000/78/EC and 2006/54/EC and promoting a European culture of active aging ensuring that older people have a life of vitality and dignity; calls on Member States to combine penalties for labour market discrimination with incentives for employers to create an inclusive labour market; calls on the Member States, in the context of the reforms and the extension of working life and with the assistance of the Commission, to implement more effectively the directives on health and safety at work;

It sets out to resolve the everyday problems of Europeans by the real and unified creation of an effective market of labour, goods and services, entrepreneurial activity without internal borders and without red tape, to strengthen the common basis of rights of succession, contracts, consumers, timely payments, the family, children and more.

In order to overcome persistent mismatches between graduate qualifications and the needs of the labour market, university programmes should be structured to enhance directly the employability of graduates and to offer broad support to the workforce more generally.

The report shows that the Commission and the Member States have already agreed on nine basic performance indicators: (1) total employment growth, (2) total employment rate, (3) total employment rate (full-time equivalent), (4) total unemployment rate, (5) youth unemployment ratio, (6) long-term unemployment rate, (7) real GDP growth, (8) apparent labour productivity growth and (9) real unit labour costs.

However, taking the time to verify if a labour or skills shortage is genuine, that an employer is reputable, that genuine efforts have been made to recruit from the over 1 million Canadians unemployed, or the over 3 million underemployed, takes rigor.