We are now in the fifth year of the economic crisis and there is little indication of any improvement. Joblessness has reached record levels and the outlook is one of stagnation.

In July 2012, the Euro Area seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 11.3% and the EU 27 it stood at 10.4%. There are 25 million men and women in the EU 27 without a job. More than 5 million are young people. 25 million is equivalent to the total population of Denmark+ Estonia+ Latvia+ Lithuania+ Ireland+ Slovenia+Slovakia+Cyprus+Luxembourg.

13 Members Below 10% Unemployment

With 3 million unemployed people, France urgently needs to set a Council on Jobs and Competitiveness to provide advice to the President and Prime Minister on strengthening the French economy; ensuring the country's competitiveness and on ways to create jobs, opportunity and prosperity for the French people.

An overwhelming majority of public and government affairs practitioners throughout the world are stronly in favor of reorganizing their current professional body so that it will have sufficient authority, power and legitimacy to legislate rules and regulations on behalf of practitioners and perform the functions to promote and protect the well-being and reputation of the profession.

1. Need to professionalize Public and Government Affairs

After 18 years of pursuit, Russia has become the 156th member of the World Trade Organization. Although many Russians claim that the accesion will hurt sectors of the domestic economy and even undermine national sovereignty and security, the entry will benefit Russia. In the short term, Russia is not likely to get immediate benefits from the accession and certain sectors of the economy may suffer pains as the country has to gradually lower its average tariff ceilings. Its budget revenues could also see a considerable drop.

The global economy could be a very difficult environment in which to find shelter. For starters, the eurozone crisis is worsening, as the euro remains too strong, front-loaded austerity deepens recession in many member countries, and a credit cruch in the periphery and high oil prices undermine prospects of recovery. The eurozone banking system is becoming balkanized, as cross-border and interbank credit lines are cut off, and capital flight could turn into a full run on periphery banks if, Greece stages a disorderly euro exit in the next few months.

The lobbying world is no longer confined to influencing legislation and regulations. Increasingly lobbying firms are offering 'Political Intelligence' services.

France's zero growth for the second quarter means that its economy is at a standstill. In other words it is marked by economic stagnation. Zero growth means continued high joblessness that will lead to decreased expectations on the part of the wage earners and a feeling of helplessness, as opportunities for personal improvement and wealth creation evaporate. As millions French people remain among the ranks of the unemployed, the drag on economic activity will continue. This dire scenario will have a marked effect on the French public.

Conventional wisdom holds that Spain must rescue its banks from its tens of billions of euro worth of bad property loans. If Spanish banks failed, the thinking goes, Spain itself would be plunged into depression, the euro itself would face heightened risk of breakup imperiling the rest of Europe's economy too.

In the worst case scenario, Greece's Euro Exit starts off messy. The government resurrects the Greek currency, the drachma. In this case, salaries and prices within Greece would be converted from euros to drachma, and the drachma would be allowed to depreciate to make the Greek economy more competitive. But currency markets would treat it differently. Banks' foreign exchange experts expect the drachma would plunge to half the value of the europ soon after its debut.

Young people continue to bear the brunt of the job crisis, with neraly 11 million 15 to 24 year-olds out of work in OECD countries.  More than one in five young people in the labour market in France, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Poland, Ireland and Italy are out of work. In Spain, youth unemployment reached 51.1% in March 2012.

Youth unemployment is more than double the unemployment rate affecting the general population across the OECD. In some countries such as Greece and Spain,it's three times higher.