World Faces Worsening Youth Employment Crisis

With young people who are three times more likely to be unemployed than adults, the world is facing a worsening youth employment crisis.

According to UN International Labour Organization (ILO)’s paper, jobless rates among young people will get even worse globally as euro crisis worsens.

(ILO)’s paper, entitled <" http://www.ilo.org/global/research/global-reports/global-employment-trends/2012/WCMS_188810/lang-en/index.htm">Global Employment Outlook: Bleak Labour Market Prospects for Youth notes that in developed economies, youth unemployment rates expected to fall in the coming years.

ILO notes that much of this drop in the jobless rate is not due to improvements in the labour market, but rather more young people are dropping out of the labour force due to discouragement.

ILO has previously warned of a “scarred” generation of young workers facing a dangerous mix of high unemployment, increased inactivity and persistently high working poverty in the the third world countries.

The projected decline in youth unemployment in the developed economies region is not expected to be enough to pull the global rate downwards, ILO reported.

The paper says the global youth unemployment rate will reach 12.9 per cent by 2017.

The impact of the euro crisis is expected to expand well beyond Europe, ILO also underlined.

The euoro crisis will also affect economies in East Asia and Latin America as exports to advanced economies have faltered.

The ILO paper notes that the global youth unemployment rate will reach 12.9 per cent by 2017.

In addition, the youth unemployment is projected to be highest in North Africa and the Middle East, with a 25 per cent rate forecast over the coming years.

ILO says with 30 million people have been added to the unemployed since the 2008 financial crisis, the young generation carry a heavy share of the burden of the crises.

According to the UN International Labour Organization (ILO), nearly 40 million more have stopped looking for employment in recent years.

On 2011, a new report by the United Nations labour agency warned of a youth jobs crisis in both developed and developing countries, with young people aged 15 to 24 finding it increasingly difficult to obtain decent employment and future prospects are dim.

As it released its “Global Employment Trends for Youth: 2011 Update,” the International Labour Organization (ILO) notes that the recent global economic crisis led to a “substantial” increase in youth unemployment rates, reversing earlier favourable trends over the past decade.

At the peak of the crisis period in 2009, the global youth unemployment rate saw its largest annual increase on record, rising from 11.8 per cent to 12.7 per cent between 2008 and 2009 – an unprecedented increase of 4.5 million unemployed youth worldwide.

The report says the absolute number of unemployed youth fell slightly since its peak in 2009 – from 75.8 million to 75.1 million in late 2010, a drop of 12.7 per cent – and is expected to decline to 74.6 million in 2011, or 12.6 per cent.