Global youth unemployment hits 13%, lowest level in 15 years

ZurichYouth unemployment worldwide hit a 15-year low last year and is likely to continue declining through 2025, although the job recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic has not been universal, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said in a report.

The ILO said 64.9 million people aged 15 to 24 worldwide were unemployed last year, a rate of 13 percent, and forecast that the proportion would continue to decline over the next two years to 12.8 percent in 2024 and 2025.

The market improvement was driven by strong economic growth rates following the pandemic, which has stimulated demand for youth labour, according to the ILO.

He noted that in the Americas region, which includes Latin America and the Caribbean, but also the United States and Canada, the youth unemployment rate has fully recovered from the COVID-19 crisis and reached 11.8 percent in 2023, the lowest figure in two decades.

However, he noted that not all subregions had youth unemployment rates returned to their pre-pandemic levels or lower in 2023.

Furthermore, the ILO notes that for young people in the Arab States, East Asia, South-East Asia and the Pacific, unemployment rates were higher last year than in 2019.

For the Arab states, this was a continuation of the pre-Covid-19 trend. But for the Asian subregions, it marked a change of direction from the stronger growth of the pre-Covid years.

He also warned that the average age of the population in Africa, which is much lower than in more developed countries, raises questions about its economic sustainability.

The looming “youthquake” in Africa means job creation is becoming a critical issue for social justice and the future of the global economy, the organization said.

The ILO also noted that unemployment rates for young women (12.9 per cent) and young men in 2023 were almost equal (13 per cent), in contrast to the years before the pandemic, when the rate for young men was higher.