…..Forecasts 12.8% Youth Employment Rate In 2024-2025
The International Labour Ogranisation (ILO) has reported that the global labour market outlook for young people improved in the last four years, and that the upward trend is expected to continue for two years more.
The global labour organization in its new report titled ‘Global Employment Trends for Youth 2024’ (GET for Youth), however cautioned that the number of 15-24-year-olds who are not in employment, education or training (NEET) remained a major concern, and that the post-COVID 19 pandemic employment recovery had not been universal, with 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, which stood at 13%, equivalent to 64.9 million people, represents a 15-year low and a fall from the pre-pandemic rate of 13.8% in 2019.
The labour organization predicted that the rate was expected to fall further to 12.8% this year and next, noting that the picture, however, is not the same across regions as in the Arab States, East Asia and South-East Asia and the Pacific, youth unemployment rates were higher in 2023 than in 2019.
In addition, the GET for Youth report also cautions that young people face other “headwinds” in finding success in the world of work, noting that too many young people across the globe are NEET and opportunities to access decent jobs remain limited in emerging and developing economies.
The report further revealed that one in five young people, or 20.4%, globally were NEET in 2023, while two in three of these NEETs were female.
The report noted the lack of progress in gaining decent jobs for the youth who worked as globally, more than half of young workers were in informal employment and only in high- and upper-middle-income economies are the majority of young workers today in a regular, secure job, while three in four young workers in low-income countries will get only a self-employed or temporary paid job.
The report cautioned that the continuing high NEET rates and insufficient growth of decent jobs were causing growing anxiety among today’s youth, who are also the most educated youth cohort ever.
Commenting on the GET for Youth report’s findings, ILO Director-General, Gilbert Houngbo, said: “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.”
Moreover, the report also found that young men had benefited more from the labour market recovery than young women as the youth unemployment rates of young women and young men in 2023 were nearly equal at 12.9% for young women and 13% for young men, unlike the pre-pandemic years when the rate for young men was higher.
In addition, the report showed that the global youth NEET rate of young women doubled that of young men at 28.1% and 13.1% respectively in 2023.
Speaking further on the report, the Director-General pointed out that “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.”
The ILO called 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 asked the youths to add their voices to calls for change, stressing that they “have the possibility to influence policy and to advocate for decent work for all. Know your rights and continue investing in your skills”, and that they should “be a part of the change that we all need to ensure a socially just and inclusive world.”
This 12th edition of the GET for Youth marks the report’s 20-year anniversary and recalled at what had been achieved in this century to improve young people’s working prospects and considers the future for youth employment “in an era characterized by crises and uncertainties.”
Looking at longer-term trends, the report concluded that Growth in “modern” services and in manufacturing jobs for youth has been limited, although modernization can be brought to traditional sectors through digitalization and AI; there were not enough high-skill jobs for the supply of educated youth, especially in middle-income countries; and that keeping skills development on pace with evolving demands for green and digital skills would be critical to reducing education mismatches.
In addition, the report also predicted that the growing number of conflicts threatens young people’s future livelihoods and can push them into migration or towards extremism, and demographic trends, notably the African “youthquake” means creating enough decent jobs, would be critical for social justice and the global economy.
The report charged national governments on the need for increased and more effective investment, including in boosting job creation with a specific target on jobs for young women, strengthening the institutions that support young people through their labour market transitions including young NEETs, integrating employment and social protection for youth, and tackling global inequalities through improved international cooperation, public-private partnerships and financing for development.
