Global economic crisis drives significant increase in youth unemployment

To coincide with the launch of the UN International Youth Year 2010-2011, the International Labour Organization (ILO) has published a new report that reveals that global youth unemployment has reached its highest level on record, and is expected to increase further during 2010. The report, “ILO Global Employment Trends for Youth 2010”, says that of some 620 million economically active youth aged 15 to 24 years, 81 million were unemployed at the end of 2009 – the highest number ever. This is 7.8 million more than the global number in 2007. The youth unemployment rate increased from 11.9 percent in 2007 to 13.0 percent in 2009.

The report adds that these trends will have “significant consequences for young people as upcoming cohorts of new entrants join the ranks of the already unemployed” and warns of the “risk of a crisis legacy of a ‘lost generation’ comprised of young people who have dropped out of the labour market, having lost all hope of being able to work for a decent living”.

According to the ILO projections, the global youth unemployment rate is expected to continue its increase in 2010 to 13.1 per cent, followed by a moderate decline to 12.7 per cent in 2011. The report also points out that the unemployment rates of youth have proven to be more sensitive to the crisis than the rates of adults, and that the recovery of the job market for young men and women is likely to lag behind that of adults.

The ILO report points out that in developing economies, where 90 per cent of young people live, youth are more vulnerable to underemployment and poverty. It finds that in the lower income countries, the impact of the crisis is felt more in shorter hours and reduced wages for the few who maintain wage and salaried employment and in rising vulnerable employment in an ‘increasingly crowded’ informal economy.

The report estimates that 152 million young people, or about 28 percent of all the young workers in the world, worked but remained in extreme poverty in households surviving on less than US$1.25 per person per day in 2008.
 
“In developing countries, crisis pervades the daily life of the poor,” said ILO Director-General Juan Somavia. “The effects of the economic and financial crisis threaten to exacerbate the pre-existing decent work deficits among youth. The result is that the number of young people stuck in working poverty grows and the cycle of working poverty persists through at least another generation.”

The ILO report explains how unemployment, underemployment and discouragement can have a long-term negative impact on young people, compromising their future employment prospects. The study also highlights the cost of idleness among youth, saying “societies lose their investment in education ...[and]… Governments fail to receive contributions to social security systems and are forced to increase spending on remedial services.”

“Young people are the drivers of economic development,” Mr Somavia continued. “Foregoing this potential is an economic waste and can undermine social stability. The crisis is an opportunity to re-assess strategies for addressing the serious disadvantages that young people face as they enter the labour market. It is important to focus on comprehensive and integrated strategies that combine education and training policies with targeted employment policies for youth.”

This significant rise in unemployment is a major concern in terms of its inevitable impact on working conditions for young people above the minimum age of employment but below the age of 18, especially in developing countries. The report refers to the rise in vulnerable employment in the informal economy, and it is in this sector that the worst forms of child labour are prevalent. The likely scenario is that the incidence of worst forms of child labour, particularly for the older age group of 15 to 17, has already increased since the estimates published by the 2010 ILO Global Report on Child Labour and that it will get progressively worse over the coming year.

“This report,” said Global March Chair Kailash Satyarthi, “coming as it does just before the MDG Summit in September 2010, underscores the essence of Roadmap 2016 which calls for global action to tackle child labour to be accelerated. It is vital for this generation and for future generations that governments focus their attention on the urgent issue of youth employment underpinned by decent work principles.”

For a copy of the ILO’s Facts on Youth Employment, click here

For a copy of the 2010 ILO Global Employment Trends for Youth, click here

To visit the ILO’s Youth Employment web site, click here