>
>GENEVA
>
>The number of unemployed youth aged 15 to 24 rose over
>the past decade, while hundreds of millions more are
>working but living in poverty, according to a new
>report by the International Labour Office (ILO).
>
>While the number of young unemployed increased from 74
>million to 85 million, or by 14.8 per cent between 1995
>and 2005, more than 300 million youth, or approximately
>25 per cent of the youth population, were living below
>the US $2 per day poverty line.
>
>The ILO report estimates that at least 400 million
>decent and productive employment opportunities - simply
>put, new and better jobs - will be needed in order to
>reach the full productive potential of today's youth
>(Note 2). The report also says youth are more than
>three times as likely to be unemployed than adults and
>that the relative disadvantage is more pronounced in
>developing countries, where youth represent a
>significantly higher proportion of the labour force
>than in developed economies.
>
>"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. "Not only are we seeing
>a growing deficit of decent work opportunities and high
>levels of economic uncertainty, but this worrying trend
>threatens to damage the future economic prospects of
>one of our worlds' greatest assets - our young men and
>women."
>
>The report emphasizes that today's youth face serious
>vulnerabilities in the world of work and warns that a
>lack of decent work, if experienced at an early age,
>may permanently compromise their future employment
>prospects. The report adds urgency to the UN call for
>development of strategies aimed at giving young people
>a chance to maximize their productive potential through
>decent employment.
>
>Among the report's key findings:
>
>Of the 1.1 billion young people aged 15 to 24
>worldwide, one out of three is either seeking but
>unable to find work, has given up the job search
>entirely or is working but living on less than US$2 a
>day.
>
>While the youth population grew by 13.2 per cent
>between 1995 and 2005, employment among young people
>grew by only 3.8 per cent to reach 548 million.
>
>Unemployed youth make up 44 per cent of the world's
>total unemployed despite the fact that their share of
>the total working-age population aged 15 and over is
>only 25 per cent.
>
>The youth unemployment rate was far higher than the
>adult unemployment rate of 4.6 per cent in 2005, rising
>from 12.3 per cent in 1995 (Note 3) to 13.5 per cent
>last year.
>
>"Idle youth is a costly group", the report says, noting
>that an inability to find employment creates a sense of
>vulnerability, uselessness and redundancy. There are
>costs, therefore, to youth themselves, but also to
>economies and societies as a whole, both in terms of
>lack of savings, loss of aggregate demand and less
>spending for investment as well as social costs for
>remedial services such as preventing crime and drug
>use.
>
>"All this is a threat to the development potential of
>economies", Mr. Somavia said. "Today, we are
>squandering the economic potential of an enormous
>percentage of our population, especially in developing
>countries which can least afford it. Focusing on youth,
>therefore, is a must for any country."
>
>Source: ILO News
>
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