Young women look for work at a job centre in Tianjin, China. Photo: ILO
The disconnect between world economic growth and job creation is likely to widen next year with more young people worldwide feared to remain unemployed in 2018, a new report warns.
The International Labor Organization says the global youth unemployment rate stabilized at 13 percent in 2016 but it is expected to rise slightly to 13.1 percent this year.
The U.N. agency’s ‘Global Employment Trends for Youth’ 2017 report noted this week that the number of unemployed youth decreased to 70.9 million in 2017 from the crisis peak of 76.7 million in 2009.
However, it warns that the number is expected to rise by a further 200,000 in 2018, reaching a total of 71.1 million.
“Addressing these persistent labor market and social challenges faced by young women and men is crucial, not only for achieving sustainable and inclusive growth but also for the future of work and societal cohesion,” Deborah Greenfield, the ILO Deputy Director-General for Policy, in a statement.
While the estimated 70.9 million unemployed youth in 2017 is an important improvement from the crisis peak of 76.7 million in 2009, but that figure is expected to rise by about 200,000 in 2018, reaching a total of 71.1 million, the report says.
Around 39 per cent of young workers in the emerging and developing world – 160.8 million youth – are living in moderate or extreme poverty (less than $3.10 a day), and more than two in every five young people in today’s workforce are unemployed or are working but poor, a striking reality that is impacting society across the world.
Women will be the worst affected in the workforce, whose presence in the labor force lags behind by about 16.6 per cent compared to their male counterparts.
Authors of the ILO report note that unemployment rates of young women are also significantly higher than those of young men, and the gender gap in the rate of young people not in employment, education or training is even wider.
On the positive side, changing dynamics in the employment sector are seeing an increasing number of young jobseekers and young entrepreneurs embracing the internet to find new and diverse forms of employment, such as crowd work, which offer flexibility and expand income earning opportunities.
People passing through a busy market in Khan El-Khalili District, Cairo, Egypt. ILO/M. Crozet
However, there are grave risks too, such as low incomes, no guarantee of job or income continuity, and lack of access to work-related benefits.
“Young people often start their working lives in temporary employment with the knowledge that they may never attain ‘job security’. They are more likely to transition to stable and satisfactory employment in developed and emerging economies than in developing countries,” the ILO report notes.
As a way forward, the report urges greater investments in quality education and skills development.
The report also recommends that the economic policies must take into account the fast changing world of work now driven by technology to enable young women and men be ahead of the curve.
