New ILO report finds high shares of youth Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEETs), regional and gender gaps, and growing youth anxiety about work, despite encouraging global youth unemployment trends.

The global labour market outlook for young people has improved in the last four years, and the upward trend is expected to continue for two more, according to a new International Labour Organization (ILO) report.

However, the report, titled Global Employment Trends for Youth 2024 (GET for Youth), cautions that the number of 15- to 24-year-olds who are not in employment, education or training (NEET) is concerning, and that the post-COVID 19 pandemic employment recovery has not been universal. Young people in certain regions and many young women are not seeing the benefits of the economic recovery.

At 13.9 per cent in 2023, the youth unemployment rate for Asia and the Pacific reflects a full recovery from the crisis years and falls below the rate of the pre-crisis years.

There are positive signals of declining youth unemployment and rising employment ratios in South Asia.

The 2023 youth unemployment rate, at 13 per cent, equivalent to 64.9 million people, 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 next. The picture, however, is not the same across regions. In the Arab States, East Asia and South-East Asia and the Pacific, youth unemployment rates were higher in 2023 than in 2019.

Other “headwinds”

By 2021, only the subregion of South Asia still had the agricultural sector as the largest employer of young people (at 35 per cent). In East Asia and South-East Asia and the Pacific, the sectoral reallocation of youth employment from agriculture since 2001 was primarily to non-manufacturing industry (mainly construction) and traditional services such as trade, transport, accommodation and food services.

The GET for Youth also cautions that young people face other “headwinds” in finding success in the world of work. It notes that too many young people across the globe are NEET and opportunities to access decent jobs remain limited in emerging and developing economies. One in five young people, or 20.4 per cent, globally were NEET in 2023. Two in three of these NEETs were female.

For the youth who do work, the report notes the lack of progress in gaining decent jobs. Globally, more than half of young workers are in informal employment. Only in high- and upper-middle-income economies are the majority of young workers today in a regular, secure job. And three in four young workers in low-income countries will get only a self-employed or temporary paid job.

High NEET rates

South Asia recorded the lowest youth unemployment rates in 15 years in 2023, but the unemployment rate of 15.1 per cent is historically the region’s highest.

Young men have had greater success than young women in finding work during the recovery period. While the youth unemployment rate of young women remained still 1 percentage point above the pre-crisis rate in 2023 (at 13.4 per cent), the rate of young men had fallen by 0.7 points.

Youth NEET rates declined from 2019 in all Asia-Pacific sub-regions, but the exceedingly high rate among young women in South Asia (at 42.4 per cent) means, on the aggregate, still one in five (20.4 per cent) youth in the region was in NEET status in 2023.

The gender gap in youth NEET rates in South Asia, at 31 percentage points, was higher than in any other sub-region of the world.

The report cautions that the continuing high NEET rates and insufficient growth of decent jobs are causing growing anxiety among today’s youth, who are also the most educated youth cohort ever.

Unequal opportunities

“None of us can look forward to a stable future when millions of young people around the world do not have decent work and as a result, are feeling insecure and unable to build a better life for themselves and their families. Peaceful societies rely on three core ingredients: stability, inclusion, and social justice; and decent work for the youth is at the heart of all three,” explained Gilbert F. Houngbo, ILO Director-General.

Moreover, the report finds that young men have benefited more from the labour market recovery than young women. The youth unemployment rates of young women and young men in 2023 were nearly equal (at 12.9 per cent for young women and 13 per cent for young men), unlike the pre-pandemic years when the rate for young men was higher. And the global youth NEET rate of young women doubled that of young men (at 28.1 per cent and 13.1 per cent, respectively) in 2023.

“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 to education and decent jobs, millions of young people are missing out on their chances for a better future,” added Houngbo.

Decent work

The ILO report calls for greater attention on strengthening the foundations of decent work as a pathway to countering young people’s anxieties about the world of work and reinforcing their hope for a brighter future.

In a message to young readers, the report’s authors ask them to add their voices to calls for change. “You have the possibility to influence policy and to advocate for decent work for all. Know your rights and continue investing in your skills,” the message says. “Be a part of the change that we all need to ensure a socially just and inclusive world.”

This 12th edition of the GET for Youth marks the report’s 20-year anniversary. It looks back at what has been achieved in this century to improve young people’s working prospects and considers the future for youth employment “in an era characterized by crises and uncertainties”. Looking at longer-term trends, the report concludes that:

• Growth in “modern” services and in manufacturing jobs for youth has been limited, although modernization can be brought to traditional sectors through digitalization and AI.
• There are not enough high-skill jobs for the supply of educated youth, especially in middle-income countries.
• Keeping skills development on pace with evolving demands for green and digital skills will be critical to reducing education mismatches. 
• The growing number of conflicts threatens young people’s future livelihoods and can push them into migration or towards extremism.

The report calls for increased and more effective investment, including in boosting job creation with a specific target on jobs for young women, strengthening the institutions that support young people through their labour market transitions including young NEETs, integrating employment and social protection for youth, and tackling global inequalities through improved international cooperation, public-private partnerships and financing for development.