The global youth unemployment rate is at its lowest level in 15 years, will continue to decline, although the precariousness of the workforce entails a “growing anxiety”, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said on Monday.
In a report, the United Nations agency also warned of the worrying number of young people between 15 and 24 years of age who are neither employed, nor studying, nor receiving training.
The recovery of employment after the Covid-19 pandemic, however, has not been universal.
“Young people in certain regions and many young women are not benefiting from the economic recovery”says the ILO.
In the Americas region, which includes Latin America and the Caribbean, but also the United States and Canada, the youth unemployment rate has fully recovered from the Covid-19 crisis and reached 11.8% in 2023, the lowest figure in two decades.
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Globally, the youth unemployment rate in 2023, at 13%, was the lowest in the past 15 years and was below the rate from 13.8% recorded in 2019, before the pandemic.
“Looking ahead, the global youth unemployment rate is expected to continue to decline over the next two years to reach 12.8 percent in 2024 and 2025,” the report states.
With 64.9 million young people unemployed worldwide, The total number of unemployed young people is also the lowest since 2000.
But “For youth in the Arab States, East Asia, South-East Asia and the Pacific, the youth unemployment rate in 2023 was higher than in 2019,” the organization stresses.
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The report also indicates that the “The global trend towards a more casualised workforce is a source of growing anxiety among young people who are striving to move towards economic independence and the next stages of adult life.”
“None of us can hope for a stable future when millions of young people around the world lack decent work and, as a result, feel insecure and unable to build a better life for themselves and their families.”stressed ILO Director-General Gilbert F. Houngbo in a statement.
Globally, more than half of young workers are employed informally, the ILO says. “Opportunities for access to decent work remain limited to emerging and developing economies,” points out.
The study reveals that in 2023, one in five young people — 20.4% of the world’s population –– had no job, no education, no training. Two out of three of these young people were women.
In addition, young men benefited much more from the labour market recovery than women. The unemployment rates for young women (12.9%) and young men in 2023 were almost equal (13%), in contrast to the years before the pandemic, when the rate for young men was higher.
AFP
