Youth unemployment rising; hundreds of millions working below poverty line – UN

The global number of unemployed youth aged 15 to 24 rose by nearly 15 per cent over the past decade, more than 300 million others, about 25 per cent of the youth population, were living below the $2 per day poverty line, and at least 400 million jobs are needed to solve the problem, according to a new report by the UN labour agency.

“Despite increased economic growth, the inability of economies to create enough decent and productive jobs is hitting the world’s young especially hard,” UN International Labour Organization (ILO) Director-General Juan Somavia said.

“Not only are we seeing a growing deficit of decent work opportunities and high levels of economic uncertainty, but this worrying trend threatens to damage the future economic prospects of one of our world’s greatest assets – our young men and women.”

The number of young unemployed increased from 74 million to 85 million, or by 14.8 per cent between 1995 and 2005, the report, Global Employment Trends for Youth, noted. It 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’s key findings include:

• 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.
• 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.
• The youth unemployment rate was far higher than the adult unemployment rate of 4.6 per cent in 2005, rising from 12.3 per cent in 1995 to 13.5 per cent last year.

“All this is a threat to the development potential of economies", Mr. Somavia said. “Today, we are squandering the economic potential of an enormous percentage of our population, especially in developing countries which can least afford it. Focusing on youth, therefore, is a must for any country.”