ILO reports improvement in global labour market outlook for young people

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) released its report titled ‘Global Employment Trends for Youth 2024’ which stated that the global labour market outlook for young people has improved in the past four years. Although the trend is expected to continue, the number of individuals in the NEET category has raised concerns.

The report highlighted that the number of 15-24-year-olds who are not in employment, education, or training (NEET) has given birth to concerns. Despite the overall labour market for youth seeing an improvement, some pockets have not been able to recover completely post the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the report, the youth unemployment rate in 2023 came in at a 15-year low at 13% or 64.9 million people. The youth unemployment rate stood at 13.8% pre-pandemic and is expected to fall to 12.8% in the current year and in the following year.

However, certain regions such as the Arab States, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific have seen a contrary trend with youth unemployment coming in higher in 2023 compared to 2019. The report further added that the youth face other challenges in finding work and the opportunities of finding decent jobs have not been on par in emerging and developing economies. The report found that 20.4% of the global youth were NEET with females accounting for two-thirds of the figure.

The findings of the report revealed that high NEET rates along with a limited scope for decent jobs have resulted in growing anxiety in the youth. Further, the report found disparity with young women not benefitting equally from the economic recovery.

The report advises the youth to advocate for changes in policy to promote equal growth for decent jobs. Moreover, the report called for heightened attention to solidify the foundations of decent jobs to address the growing anxieties in young people.