Global Employment Trends for Youth 2024

Syllabus: GS3/Economy

Context

• The International Labour Organization (ILO) has released its report titled “Global Employment Trends for Youth 2024 (GET for Youth).

About

• This report represents the 20th anniversary publication of the ILO’s GET for Youth.
• This GET for Youth looks back on what has been achieved since the dawn of the twenty-first century while also looking ahead to what may lay in store for youth employment in an era characterized by crises and uncertainties.

Major Highlights

• Resilient economic growth post Covid 19, has improved the global labour market outlook for young people belonging to the 15-24 age group.
• The 2023 youth unemployment rate at 13 percent, represents a 15-year low and a fall from the pre-pandemic rate of 13.8 per cent in 2019.
  • It is expected to fall further to 12.8 per cent this year and the next year.
• Higher Unemployment Rates: In the Arab countries, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific, youth unemployment rates were higher in 2023 than in 2019. 
• NEET Youth: The report also cautions that the number of young people who are not in employment, education or training (NEET) is ‘concerning’, as it stood at 20.4 percent with two in three young NEETs globally being women.
• Concerns of Employed Youth: Lack of progress in gaining decent jobs, more than half of young workers are in informal employment globally.
  • The share of young adults working in a secure paid job is significantly higher in high-income countries (at 76% in 2023) but the the incidence of temporary work has risen in those countries too. 
  • The supply of high-skill jobs to match the supply of educated youth, especially in middle-income countries, has not been enough.
  • In low-income countries, only one in five young adults aged 25 to 29 manage to find a secure paid job. 

• Services Sector: From 2008, services took over as the largest employer of young people worldwide. The share of youth employment by services rose to 45.9 percent.
  • Within services, three aggregated subsectors have been responsible for two thirds of the increase in the sector’s share: wholesale and retail trade; accommodation and food services; and other business services.
• Agriculture Sector: The share of youth employment accounted for by agriculture declined to 30.5 percent by 2021.
• Industry Sector: Within the industry sector, manufacturing accounted for a diminishing share of youth jobs between 2001 and 2021, while construction has come to play a more dominant role, for young men in particular.
• In Asia and the Pacific region, youth unemployment rate was at 13.9% in 2023 and it reflected a full recovery from the crisis years and fell below the rate of the pre-crisis years.
  • By 2025, the youth unemployment rate in the region is expected to continue its decline to 13.7%. 
  • The gender gap in youth not in employment, education or training rates in South Asia was higher than in any other subregion of the world
  • The region’s youth NEET rate is expected to grow very slightly to 20.5% (from 20.4% in 2023).
  • The share of young adults in Asia and the Pacific working in temporary jobs has increased from one in five to one in four since the start of the millennium. 
  • By 2021, only the subregion of South Asia still had the agricultural sector as the largest employer of young people (at 35%).

Conclusion

• The report reminds us that opportunities for young people are highly unequal; with many young women, young people with limited financial means or from any minority background still struggling. 
• Without equal opportunities for education and decent jobs, millions of young people are missing out on their chances for a better future.

Source: TH