The unemployment rate among young people in
developed economies rose to 18.1 percent last year, the UN labor
body said Wednesday in Geneva, noting that this rate was equal to a
record for the last 20 years last reached in 2010.
Although youth unemployment in the European Union and other
advanced economies is expected to fall slightly to 17.9 per cent this
year, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said in its annual
youth report that it would sink below 17 per cent only by 2016.
Industrialized and sub-Saharan African countries are the only
economies where the ILO projects an improvement in the coming five
years for people under the age of 25.
"It is not a good time to be a young person looking for a job, and
prospects don't look like they are getting better," senior ILO
economist Theodore Sparreboom said, pointing to the slowdown in the
global recovery.
Some 73.4 million young people are expected to be without a job
this year, up from last year's 72.9 million.
The global jobless rate rose to 12.4 per cent last year and will
reach 12.6 per cent in 2013, the ILO predicted.
The organization highlighted that an increasing number of youths
find only low-quality or temporary work.
A quarter in Europe had only part-time jobs and more than 40 per
cent had short-term contracts in 2011, according to the latest
available data.
In poor countries, many youths find themselves working irregular,
underpaid jobs. In countries like Peru, Egypt, Malawi, and Cambodia,
more than 40 per cent of young people are part of the irregular job
market.
The region with the highest youth unemployment was the Middle
East, with 28.3 per cent, followed by North Africa with 23.7 per cent
in 2012.
The situation was much more positive in East Asia and South Asia,
where less than 10 per cent of the young population was without a
job.
In Latin American and the Caribbean, the rate fell below 13 per
cent last year, but is expected to exceed that level this year and
climb over the coming five years.
