The Hindu : New Delhi News : Youth unemployment rising, says International Labour Office study

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Monday, Oct 30, 2006
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Youth unemployment rising, says International Labour Office study

Special Correspondent

Young women face even greater challenges in labour market

NEW DELHI: The number of unemployed youth aged 15 to 24 rose over the past decade, while hundreds of millions more are working but living in poverty, according to a new report by the International Labour Office (ILO).

While the number of young unemployed increased from 74 million to 85 million, or by 14.8 per cent between 1995 and 2005, more than 300 million youth, or approximately 25 per cent of the youth population, were living below the $2 per day poverty line.

The ILO report estimates that at least 400 million decent and productive employment opportunities — simply put, new and better jobs — will be needed in order to reach the full productive potential of today's youth. The report also says youth are more than three times as likely to be unemployed than adults and that the relative disadvantage is more pronounced in developing countries, where youth represent a significantly higher proportion of the labour force than in developed economies.

The report emphasises that today's youth face serious vulnerabilities in the world of work and warns that lack of decent work, if experienced at an early age, may permanently compromise their future employment prospects.

The report adds urgency to the U.N. call for development of strategies aimed at giving young people a chance to maximise their productive potential through decent employment.

Among the report's key findings are that of the 1.1 billion young people aged 15 to 24 worldwide, one out of three is either seeking but unable to find work, has given up the job search entirely or is working but living on less than $2 a day.

Also, while the youth population grew by 13.2 per cent between 1995 and 2005, employment among young people grew by only 3.8 per cent to reach 548 million.

Unemployed youth make up 44 per cent of the world's total unemployed despite the fact that their share of the total working age population aged 15 and over is only 25 per cent.

"Idle youth is a costly group," the report says, noting that an inability to find employment creates a sense of vulnerability, uselessness and redundancy. There are costs, therefore, to youth themselves, but also to economies and societies as a whole, both in terms of a lack of savings, loss of aggregate demand and less spending for investment as well as social costs for remedial services such as preventing crime and drug use.

Young women face even greater challenges in the labour market, as far fewer women are likely to be working or looking for work. The gap in labour force participation rates between young men and women are larger in developing regions.

At the same time, even having a job today isn't enough to guarantee a young person's future economic sustainability. With the persistence of poverty among as many as 56 per cent of young workers — and the possibility that they may be facing long working hours, temporary and/or informal contracts, with low pay, little or no social protection, minimal training and no voice at work — it becomes clear that having a job is not the same as having a decent job.

The report calls for targeted and integrated national policies and programmes, fostered by international aid, to reach the most vulnerable youth and to bring them back into the fold of a civil society that can benefit from their participation.

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