#YouthStats: Employment

Unemployment 

  • After a period of rapid increase between 2007 and 2010, the global youth unemployment rate settled at 13.0 per cent for the period 2012 to 2014 and is expected to increase only slightly to 13.1 per cent in 2015. The rate has not yet recovered its pre-crisis rate of 11.7 per cent in 2007. [ILO, Global Employment Trends for Youth 2015, 2015, p.6, http://goo.gl/QPhyAv]
  • The youth unemployment rate is 13.1% which is 3 times the adult unemployment rate. [ILO, 2015, http://bit.ly/1LCnOAa]
  • The number of unemployed youth has declined from 76.6 million at the peak of the crisis in 2009 to an estimated 73.3 million in 2014. [ILO, Global Employment Trends for Youth 2015, 2015, p.6, http://goo.gl/QPhyAv]
  • The global youth employment-to-population ratio (EPR) –  the share of the working age population that is employed  –  declined by 2.7  percentage points between 2007 and 2014 (from 43.9 to 41.2 per cent). The declining trends in youth EPRs are closely linked to increasing trends in educational enrolment. [ILO, Global Employment Trends for Youth 2015, 2015, p.6, http://goo.gl/QPhyAv]
  • In 2014, youth unemployment was highest in the Middle East and North Africa, at 28.2 per cent and 30.5 per cent, respectively, and lowest in South Asia (9.9 per cent) and East Asia (10.6 per cent). [ILO, Global Employment Trends for Youth 2015, 2015, p.6, http://goo.gl/QPhyAv]
  • The youth unemployment rate exceeded 20 per cent in two-thirds of the European countries in 2014. [ILO, Global Employment Trends for Youth 2015, 2015, p.6, http://goo.gl/QPhyAv]
  • In the European Union (28 countries), more than one in three (35.5 per cent) unemployed youth had been looking for work for longer than one year in 2014, an increase from 32.6 per cent in 2012. [ILO, Global Employment Trends for Youth 2015, 2015, p.7, http://goo.gl/QPhyAv]
  • The youth unemployment rate has been consistently close to three times that of the adult unemployment rate since 1995 (with ratios between 2.7 and 2.9). [ILO, Global Employment Trends for Youth 2015, 2015, p.6, http://goo.gl/QPhyAv]
  • The youth unemployment rate is the highest in Arab States (29 %) [ILO, Key Indicators of the Labour Market. 8th edition. 2015, http://goo.gl/FzjpLu] 
  • The amount of entrepreneurs increases following the rate of youth unemployment. [ILO, 2015, http://bit.ly/1vPRVz6]
  • About one in 3 youth aged 15 to 24 suffers from a deficit of decent work opportunities. [Millennium Development Goals, Goal 1, target 1.B -FAO and YUNGA]
  • Almost 43 per cent of the global youth labour force is still either unemployed or working yet living in poverty [International Labour Organization, October 2015, http://goo.gl/DT3zar]
  • 225 million youth, or 20% of all youth in the developing world, are not in education, employment, or training. [UNESCO UNDESA, 2011, http://bit.ly/1BBk3uC]
  • Working poverty affects as many as 169 million youth in the world. The number increases to 286 million if the near poor are included (living below US$4 per day). [ILO, Global Employment Trends for Youth 2015, 2015, p.47, http://goo.gl/QPhyAv]

 

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Transition from Education to Employment

  • Globally, it takes on average 19 months to complete the transition from school to a stable or satisfactory job. [ILO, Global Employment Trends for Youth 2015, p.3, http://goo.gl/QPhyAv]
  • For the age group 25–29, at which a young person would be most expected to have completed the transition, a young male adult is 1.9 times more likely to have completed his labour market transition than a young adult female. [ILO, 2016, http://goo.gl/Z2LYLV]
  • A 2013 of 7,800 millennials from 26 countries in North America, Western Europe, Latin America and East Asia found that millennials anticipated that their working lives would be flexible and diverse. About 70 percent expected to be self-employed at some point. [UNDP Human Development Report 2015, p. 96, http://goo.gl/WHzXtK]
  • One of 69 countries found that being without a job translates into negative views about the effectiveness of democracy, particularly among the long-term unemployed. [UNDP Human Development Report 2015, p.64, http://goo.gl/WHzXtK] 
  • Between 2012 and 2020 almost 1.1 billion young jobseekers are expected to enter the job market, many of them in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. [UNDP Human Development Report 2015, 64, http://goo.gl/WHzXtK] 
  • In 2015, 74 million young people (ages 15- 24) were unemployed. [United Nations, The Millennium Development Goals Report 2015, p.17, http://goo.gl/WHzXtK]
  • Globally, many university graduates are underemployed and do not use skills they acquired in school. [UNDP, Empowered Youth Sustainable Future, http://bit.ly/1NgLyLt]
  • In the Middle East and North Africa, nearly 40% of firms reported that mismatched skills are a major constraint to business operations. [UNDP, Empowered Youth Sustainable Future, http://bit.ly/1NgLyLt]

Informal Sector

  • 2/3 of youth in developing economies are without work, not studying, or engaged in irregular/informal employment. [UNDP, 2014, http://bit.ly/1KdkY7u]
  • In sub-Saharan Africa, more than 40% of young workers are unpaid. [UNDP, Empowered Youth Sustainable Future, http://bit.ly/1NgLyLt]
  • In the Middle East and North Africa, more than 80% of young workers work in the informal sector. [UNDP, Empowered Youth Sustainable Future, http://bit.ly/1NgLyLt]

Unemployment and Social Unrest

  • Social unrest is more common in countries and regions where male youth unemployment is high or rising rapidly. [ILO, 2015, http://bit.ly/1ztrYbq]
  • The private sector is the main driver in the fight against poverty, providing 9 in 10 jobs. [UNIDO IFC: Jobs Study, 2013]
  • Youth unemployment situation is common to all regions and is occurring despite improvements in average educational attainment of youth cohorts, thereby fueling social discontent. [ILO,World Employment Social Outlook, 2015, http://bit.ly/1ztrYbq]
  • An estimated 400 million youth worldwide – or about 1/3 of all youth aged 15 to 24 – suffer from a deficit of decent work opportunities. [FAO ILO, 2013, http://bit.ly/1IeueGJ]
  • About 152 million young workers live in households that are below the poverty line ($1.25 per day), comprising 24 percent of all working poor. [ILO, Global Jobs Pact − Policy Brief No. 14, 2010, http://bit.ly/1dgT2kF]
  • Whether youth are enrolled in school, work, are receiving training, or underemployed or unemployed has important implications for future economic growth and development and stability. [ILO, 2014, http://bit.ly/1CtDAZ6]

Women

  • Unemployment is affecting young women more than young men in almost all regions of the world. In Northern Africa and the Arab States, the female youth unemployment rate is almost double that of young men, reaching as high as 44.3 and 44.1 per cent, respectively. [ILO, 2016, http://goo.gl/Z2LYLV]
  • The female youth unemployment rate has risen to 44.3 per cent in Northern Africa and 44.1 per cent in the Arab States: almost double that for young men, which has remained at 24.0 per cent. [ILO, 2016, http://goo.gl/Z2LYLV]
  • In Latin America, informality disproportionately affects women, young people and households at the bottom of the income distribution chain. [ILO, 2016, http://goo.gl/Z2LYLV]
  • Overall, in both developed and developing countries young women face obstacles in entering the labour market which are significantly higher than those for young men. [ILO, 2016, http://goo.gl/Z2LYLV]
  • Each day, young women and children spend 140 million hours collecting water, which significantly diminishes their access to education and labor markets. [UN WOMEN, water.org, 2015, http://bit.ly/1kLxHi4]
  • 200 million young people in developing countries have not completed primary school and, therefore, lack the necessary skills for work. About 58% are young women. [UNDP, Empowered Youth Sustainable Future, http://bit.ly/1NgLyLt]

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