"The news on youth employment is starting to look a bit better:
the International Labour Organization just released
the 2015 Global Employment Trends for Youth.
This report shows that
global unemployment numbers for 15 to 24 year-olds have dropped
by 3.3 million since the peak of the economic crisis in 2009
to a total of 73.3 million unemployed young people around the world in 2014.
And the youth unemployment rate has been holding steady at 13% since 2012."
"Hold on …
I live in Italy and I’ve been looking for a job as a chemist for 3 years now.
How can they say things are getting better
when all I can find is a temp job selling clothes?!"
"But the report says exactly this:
The recovery is not universal.
In two-thirds of European countries,
the youth unemployment rate is still over 20 per cent.
And worse, more than 1 in 3 unemployed youth has been looking for a job
for longer than one year."
"And don’t forget about us in the Middle East and North Africa!
Youth unemployment here has been close to 30 per cent for decades
with no sign that things will improve.
For young women in particular…
you can basically forget about finding a job
even though we are now as educated as young men, if not more so.
Yet our unemployment rates are almost 50 per cent. "
"I always find it strange when these reports talk about sub-Saharan Africa
having low youth unemployment rates.
It’s deceiving since so many of us don’t feel like we are working.
None of my friends has a regular job.
We work a few hours here and there, whenever we can. "
"What you’ve just described is an issue of underemployment or worse, working poverty,
which is when the income from work is not enough to lift a family out of poverty.
The report finds that more than one-third of working youth in developing countries
are living on less than $2 a day.
Three in four young workers in low-income countries have
what the report calls an “irregular” job.
And nine in ten work in the informal economy.
None of this qualifies as decent work. "
"And the NEETs? Youth neither in employment nor education or training?
This is a topic which is a concern in my country, Guatemala."
"And it will be in other countries as well since it has been announced as a target
in the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
This is important since it allows us to focus attention on the youth
who are the most vulnerable…
those most likely to leave school early and to remain without a job."
"What about solutions. What does the ILO recommend?
The report talks about how staying in education gives young people
a better chance of getting a decent job. "
"And we should acknowledge that progress is being made in getting more young people
into school around the world and keeping them in school for longer.
This is a positive trend."
"But then there is a chart that shows how youth with university degrees in my region
– Asia – are three times more likely to be unemployed than those without one.
Isn’t that a contradiction?"
"Well, we should bear in mind that
the university graduate is not going to settle for just any job.
In a way then it’s ‘normal’ that they spend longer looking.
And there is no denying that they have a much better chance
of getting a job with a written contract in the formal sector
and maybe even a decent wage.
So strengthening the investment in education and training for today’s children
and tomorrow’s workers remains crucial.
Strategies that help promote job creation will be key,
as are targeted interventions that help get young people into work.
These can include job search assistance, apprenticeships,
subsidies to employers and training programmes.
The international community is paying close attention to youth employment.
In fact the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda
provides us with a clear course of action to work with governments
and the social partners on designing better policies and programmes
to address all of the issues you have raised here."