Is Youth Unemployment on the rise?
“In 2018, one fifth of the world’s youth was not in education, employment or training, and young women were more than twice as likely as young men to be unemployed.”
This means that we were neither gaining professional experience nor acquiring or developing skills through vocational or educational programmes in their prime years. This also shows a stark gender difference in the job sector.
Inclusive and sustainable economic growth can drive progress and generate the means to implement the Sustainable Development Goals. But we have taken a step towards the better. Globally, labour productivity has increased and unemployment is back to pre-financial crisis levels. But don’t mistake this as a time to take it easy on the fight against unemployment. The global economy is growing at a much slower rate and much more progress is needed to increase employment opportunities, particularly for young people. It is also imperative that informal employment is reduced and the gender pay gap is bridged.
Many workers around the world are exposed to undue risks in their workplaces. Based on recent data from some 55 countries, a median of 3 deaths occurred per 100,000 employees and a median of 889 non-fatal injuries occurred per 100,000 employees. It is also extremely important to realise the impact that youth can have, but because they aren’t employed and in education or training, the kind of potential they bring to the world gets wasted. We are working towards the same by not only trying to increase employment but also by increasing the number of people who complete their secondary education and those who enroll for tertiary education.
Governments need to address youth’s crucial transition from school to work. Active labor market programs including job-search assistance, counseling, training, and placement services can help, if they are comprehensive — but they are expensive. Vocational training, in particular in a dual form combining vocational schooling and structured learning on-the-job, is also considered an important solution.
But this also means that there is a need to take everyone in this journey to Decent work and economic growth. We as a society cannot progress if part of our society is not at the same pace. In such a case it is crucial that both women and men of different strata of society are given the opportunities to work and make something of themselves. Our world in general needs to be more accessible for people with disabilities and we need to give them a chance to earn, not only a living but respect in the society.
For this our institutions need to be strengthened, so that they can cater for the sheer amount of youth population in a lot of developing countries. By 2020, the United Nations aim to substantially reduce the proportion of youth not in employment, education or training. This means that more and more of the youth population will now be skilled and ready to take on employment and contribute to the growth of society as a whole.
But now that we are aware of all of this, it is really important that we stop looking from the sidelines. There is a need to take a bold step to improve the state of employment. You can start your journey of impact with a single click here and make sure that your voice is heard in the best way possible.
