One-third of world’s youths jobless: ILO

GENEVA – The number of unemployed 15 to 24 year-olds has risen sharply over the past decade, leaving about one-third of the world’s young people without jobs or in abject poverty, the International Labour Organisation said yesterday.

In a report on ‘Global Employment Trends for Youth’, the ILO warned that global economic growth was failing the young. It said about 400 million “new and better” jobs had to be created worldwide to resolve the problem.People in the 15 to 24 age group are three times as likely to be unemployed as older adults, especially in developing countries where they represent a larger proportion of the labour force, it added.The number of unemployed youths, who are one of the most economically productive age groups in society, rose by 15 per cent to 85 million between 1995 and 2005, according to the ILO.Some 300 million youth are living on less than two dollars a day, it added.”Despite increased economic growth, the inability of economies to create enough decent and productive jobs is hitting the world’s young especially hard,” said ILO Director General Juan Somavia.”This worrying trend threatens to damage the future economic prospects of one of the world’s greatest assets – our young men and women,” he said.While their global population grew by 13 per cent between 1995 and 2005, employment for 15 to 24 year-olds only grew by 3,8 per cent.The report said that even a high standard of education was no guarantee of decent employment for young people.By far the highest increase in the unemployment among the young over the past decade has occurred in southeast Asia (85 per cent), according to the report.Developed economies and the 25-nation European Union were the only regions to experience a decline in unemployment among the young (-17,5 per cent).However, the report said that was down to the ageing population rather than job creation.Young women face an even greater challenge than their male counterparts, the ILO said.Sub-Saharan Africa (34 per cent) experienced the second highest growth in unemployment among the young, followed by Latin America (23 per cent), the Middle East (18 per cent) and South Asia (16 per cent).Nampa-AFPIt said about 400 million “new and better” jobs had to be created worldwide to resolve the problem.People in the 15 to 24 age group are three times as likely to be unemployed as older adults, especially in developing countries where they represent a larger proportion of the labour force, it added.The number of unemployed youths, who are one of the most economically productive age groups in society, rose by 15 per cent to 85 million between 1995 and 2005, according to the ILO.Some 300 million youth are living on less than two dollars a day, it added.”Despite increased economic growth, the inability of economies to create enough decent and productive jobs is hitting the world’s young especially hard,” said ILO Director General Juan Somavia.”This worrying trend threatens to damage the future economic prospects of one of the world’s greatest assets – our young men and women,” he said.While their global population grew by 13 per cent between 1995 and 2005, employment for 15 to 24 year-olds only grew by 3,8 per cent.The report said that even a high standard of education was no guarantee of decent employment for young people.By far the highest increase in the unemployment among the young over the past decade has occurred in southeast Asia (85 per cent), according to the report.Developed economies and the 25-nation European Union were the only regions to experience a decline in unemployment among the young (-17,5 per cent).However, the report said that was down to the ageing population rather than job creation.Young women face an even greater challenge than their male counterparts, the ILO said.Sub-Saharan Africa (34 per cent) experienced the second highest growth in unemployment among the young, followed by Latin America (23 per cent), the Middle East (18 per cent) and South Asia (16 per cent).Nampa-AFP