Rigid labor rules and sky-high payroll taxes can hurt employment

See Probably Not Due to AD by Arnold Kling, from the askblog.

"The Wall Street Journal reports,

    The employment rate of Italians under 40 fell nine percentage points since 2007, while it rose the same amount for those between 55 and 64 years, according to Eurostat.

The article points to high fixed costs of hiring works, which holds down employment of young people and leaves them only with short-term, temporary jobs. Read the whole thing. One more excerpt:

    Employers in many countries are reluctant to hire on permanent contracts because of rigid labor rules and sky-high payroll taxes that go to funding the huge pension bill of their parents.

Don’t think it couldn’t happen here."