GENEVA: The global labour market outlook for young people has improved in the last four years, and the upward trend is expected to continue for two more, according to a new International Labour Organization (ILO) report.
The ILO has issued its Global Employment Trends for Youth 2024 report to coincide with International Youth Day on August 12, to raise awareness of the needs, hopes, and aspirations of young people.
However, the report cautions that the number of 15- to 24-year-olds who are not in employment, education or training (NEET) is concerning and that the post-COVID-19 pandemic employment recovery has not been universal. Young people in certain regions and many young women are not seeing the benefits of the economic recovery.
According to the report, the 2023 youth unemployment rate, at 13 per cent, equivalent to 64.9 million people, represents a 15-year low and a fall from the pre-pandemic rate of 13.8 per cent in 2019. It is expected to fall further to 12.8 per cent this year and next. The picture, however, is not the same across regions. In the Arab States, East Asia and South-East Asia and the Pacific, youth unemployment rates were higher in 2023 than in 2019.
The Global Employment Trends for Youth also cautions that young people face other “headwinds” in finding success in the world of work.
The report notes that too many young people across the globe are NEET and opportunities to access decent jobs remain limited in emerging and developing economies. One in five young people, or 20.4 per cent, globally were NEET in 2023. Two in three of these NEETs were female.
“For the youth who do work, the report notes the lack of progress in gaining decent jobs. Globally, more than half of young workers are in informal employment. Only in high- and upper-middle-income economies are the majority of young workers today in a regular, secure job. And three in four young workers in low-income countries will get only a self-employed or temporary paid job,” read the report.
The report cautions that the continuing high NEET rates and insufficient growth of decent jobs are causing growing anxiety among today’s youth, who are also the most educated youth cohort ever.
“None of us can look forward to a stable future when millions of young people around the world do not have decent work and as a result, are feeling insecure and unable to build a better life for themselves and their families. Peaceful societies rely on three core ingredients: stability, inclusion, and social justice; and decent work for the youth is at the heart of all three,” explained Gilbert F. Houngbo, ILO Director-General.
Moreover, the report finds that young men have benefited more from the labour market recovery than young women. The youth unemployment rates of young women and young men in 2023 were nearly equal (at 12.9 per cent for young women and 13 per cent for young men), unlike the pre-pandemic years when the rate for young men was higher. And the global youth NEET rate of young women doubled that of young men (at 28.1 per cent and 13.1 per cent, respectively) in 2023.
“The report reminds us that opportunities for young people are highly unequal; with many young women, young people with limited financial means or from any minority background still struggling. Without equal opportunities to education and decent jobs, millions of young people are missing out on their chances for a better future,” added Houngbo.
The ILO report calls for greater attention on strengthening the foundations of decent work as a pathway to countering young people’s anxieties about the world of work and reinforcing their hope for a brighter future.
In a message to young readers, the report’s authors ask them to add their voices to calls for change. “You have the possibility to influence policy and to advocate for decent work for all. Know your rights and continue investing in your skills,” the message says. “Be a part of the change that we all need to ensure a socially just and inclusive world.”
Sara Elder, head of ILO’s employment analyses and economic policies unit, explains, “The issue here is that young people in certain contexts do not have the luxury of being unemployed. They have to take up a job. They have to earn some income.
“Often it is poverty driven and this is very much what we see in young people in sub-Saharan Africa,” she said, adding that the region “has a very distinct problem of decent work deficits.”
