Changes in selected characteristics of the EU labour market in times of economic crisis

Since 2008 the labour market of the EU has been significantly influenced by the economic crisis. This article focuses on the labour market, especially the development of unemployment in the EU in the period just before the economic crisis (2006 and 2007) and during the economic crisis (20082010). The impacts of the crisis are shown on the selected characteristics. Not only it examines regional disparities of the development of unemployment and long-term unemployment but also the impacts of the crisis on unemployment of young population (15-24 years old) and the ratio between male and female unemployment in the EU. This research was financially supported by the Student Grant Competition SU within the project SGS/7/2012 "The influence of regional disparities on the business environment".