A Global Perspective on Youth Employment Challenges: What Have We Learned Over the Last Two Decades?

Promoting youth employment has become a crucial priority for policymakers worldwide, particularly in developing countries where governments seek to provide opportunities for a youthful population and take advantage of the well-recognized ‘demographic dividend’, which is critical for accelerating growth and prosperity. However, young people continue to experience much higher unemployment rates, usually around three times higher than for older adults, and are much more vulnerable to increases in unemployment during crises as witnessed in recent years. More concerning is that crises can have long-term effects for young people in their chances of finding decent employment. A more comprehensive perspective on the situation facing young people in labour markets is provided by looking at other indicators, including the share of young people not in employment, education or training (NEET rate), which went up during the COVID-19 crisis. In terms of employment quality, more than three out of four of the world’s young workers are informally employed with young people also overrepresented in working poverty and less-protected forms of work. Against this backdrop, this chapter presents the latest global and regional trends across key labour market indicators that highlight both progress and challenges for young people, with a specific focus on the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on youth employment. An important finding is the divergence between low- and high-income countries. The chapter then explores policy responses, including the latest evidence on the effectiveness of active labour market programmes, before highlighting the different dimensions needed to adequately address youth employment challenges, especially in developing countries.