I think the crisis and high unemployment has come about because we haven't moved with the times. Just like the monks lost their jobs as scribes when the printing press was invented and the spinning wheels were stuck in attics when the industrial revolution started...
... the digital revolution is upon us and many don't have the connectivity to become part of it. My recommendation is to get the fat pipes to the innovators, jobs will be created and cream rises to the top. The top wants to be in Europe, and we are being left behind, as countries lay fibre and we continue to make do and mend the old phone networks. Entrepreneurs are out there, we just need to create the environment to support them. Kick start, seed corn funding, or soft loans, and a level playing field to stop big boys knocking them flat before they can get their business model stabilised.

Crises creates the best start-ups
1) It's an old rule the best start-ups are created in tough times.
2) Like Chris said - the economy goes down when we failed to innovate and only bore the market with lousy service.
3) Innovation is actually independent of a crisis - our creative minds go 24x7. Just don't let it slow down.

Meaning we got to keep rocking - no matter how difficult it may be :)

Some "devil's advocate" here. Just looked at Wooga.com , the German company for social / casual games - consider it the Zynga of Europe. It claims to be the 3rd largest social game developer in the world, so consider this is one of the biggest and most successful: it has 200 employees in 35 countries. So to me the impact on jobs seems therefore relatively small...

I'm not in agreement with the latest statement. Innovation both in large enterprises as well as in start-ups creates quality jobs. In large enterprises most of the times with senior-profile R&D employees, closing the circle between university and companies/industry (a pending issue in Europe).
In start-ups, despite individually they will sustain an average of 15-20 employees when mature, a large number of them cohabiting will create an employment net. And those start-ups which grow will keep generating new jobs.
Even those startups generate indirect jobs, specially in early stages when most companies rely on external backoffice services.

In Spain, 3 out of 4 new job posts are created by startups and SMEs

Since we last met, the global recovery has continued to face a number of challenges. Financial market tensions are high. External, fiscal and financial imbalances are still prevalent, having a major impact on growth and employment prospects and confidence. Clearly, the global economy remains vulnerable, with a negative impact on the everyday lives of people all over the world, affecting jobs, trade, development, and the environment.

http://www.surveytool.com/create-online-survey-free/

The nation’s employers added 171,000 positions on net in October, the Labor Department reported on Friday, and more jobs than initially estimated in August and September. Hiring was broad-based, with just nearly every industry except state government adding jobs. The unemployment rate ticked up slightly to 7.9 percent in October, from 7.8 percent in September, but for a good reason: more workers joined the labor force and so officially counted as unemployed.
http://www.carbonated.tv/news