In the coming decades, global growth will depend on today’s young
people. Combatting the persistent youth employment crisis requires a
global effort and proactive action: report
WASHINGTON, October 13, 2015 – One third of the world’s 1.8
billion young people are currently neither in employment, education or
training. Of the one billion more youth that will enter the job market
in the next decade, only 40 percent are expected to be able to get jobs
that currently exist. The global economy will need to create 600
million jobs over the next 10 years – five million jobs each month --
simply to keep pace with projected youth employment rates. Reversing the
youth employment crisis is a pressing global priority and the
socio-economic cost of inaction is high, says a new report.
This inaugural report, entitled Toward Solutions for Youth Employment: A 2015 Baseline Report,
is being released today by Solutions for Youth Employment (S4YE) – a
multistakeholder global coalition established to improve youth access to
work opportunities. This coalition is a partnership started by the
World Bank Group, Plan International, the International Youth Foundation
(IYF), Youth Business International (YBI), RAND, Accenture, and the
International Labour Organization (ILO).
“Young people account for 40 percent of the world’s population –
the largest youth generation in human history – but they are
disproportionately affected by unemployment. This is a persistent
problem. Approximately 30 percent of young people are not in employment,
training or education, and around the world, young women are worse off.
We need to act now, and we need to act together if we are going to
realize the significant opportunities presented by this many young
people today,” said Matt Hobson, S4YE Coalition Manager.
While circumstances differ in various regions,...
the report adds, the
issues remain the same – the world’s youth are unable to find
sustainable productive work. This contributes to inequality, spurs
social tension, and poses a risk to present and future national and
global prosperity and security.
This report provides a baseline of trends, identifies constraints,
and provides potential solutions to the youth employment crisis based on
knowledge of successful and promising programs. It also highlights
specific population —young women, youth in conflict-affected and fragile
states, as well as rural and urban youth— that requires dedicated
attention.
“Global youth unemployment is a growing global challenge. When
young workers are not able to connect to the labor market, it profoundly
impacts their ability to participate fully in the economy, and
threatens their social and economic future,” said John Irons, Managing Director at The Rockefeller Foundation and S4YE Board Member. “At
The Rockefeller Foundation, we share S4YE’s view that working with
employers is key to opening more job opportunities for youth, creating
better matches for employers and young workers, and making sure that
young people have the support they need to succeed. By expanding access
to labor market opportunities for youth and helping companies derive
value from hiring from diverse pools of youth talent, we see the
potential to not only address youth unemployment at scale—but to build
more inclusive economies.
“The report shows that young people are by inclination more
entrepreneurial than adults - and we now know that of all the
interventions governments, private sector and civil society implement to
address youth employment, providing support to early entrepreneurs is
the most effective,” said Hobson. “The good news is that experience and
evidence increasingly indicate that we already have some of the policy
and program responses in our arsenal to tackle youth employment now.”
A great deal of progress has been made in recent years toward
understanding the complexities of youth employment and how to
promote it. To improve the chances for young people around the world,
the Coalition will prioritize focusing on four frontier areas to support
opportunities for young people:
- Digital Age Impact – the technological revolution is fundamentally changing work and relationships, but this shift is unevenly felt across the world.
- Skills Gap – in order to fill the skills gap, opportunities for men, women, and those at the lowest end of the spectrum needs to improve.
- Entrepreneurship and Self-Employment – worldwide, youth are 1.6 times more likely than adults to display entrepreneurial activity, which needs to be bolstered.
- Quality Jobs – quantitative unemployment measurements do not reflect quality of employment and deeper understandings of today’s working conditions is required.
Today’s youth will not be able to escape poverty by 2030 if they do
not have a means of employment, says the report. New targets related to
youth employment in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) reflect this recognition and desire for change. The report helps
track the SDGs by providing a baseline against which to
measure progress.
Success, sustainability, and scale in reaching full youth employment
will not be possible without collaboration involving government and
public insitutions at all levels, says the report. The Solutions
for Youth Employment coalition is committed to seeing 150 million more
youth at work. It envisions a world where an empowered and employed
young generation drives global prosperity. To this end, it aims to link
by fostering global coordination, learn by collecting and using
evidenced-based knowledge, and leverage by using resources to scale-up
proven solutions.
