World youth unemployment rate lowest for 15 years: UN

GENEVA

Global youth unemployment is at its lowest level for 15 years, the United Nations said on Monday, though not all regions have yet recovered from the COVID-19 slump.

The number of 15- to 24-year-olds who are not in employment, education or training (NEET) is concerning, the U.N.'s labor agency said, adding that the post-COVID-19 pandemic recovery has not been universal in all regions.

"Young people in certain regions and many young women are not seeing the benefits of the economic recovery," the International Labor Organization (ILO) said.

At 64.9 million, the total number of unemployed young people worldwide in 2023 was the lowest since the start of the millennium, the ILO said.

At 13 percent, the youth unemployment rate last year represents a 15-year low and a fall from the pre-pandemic rate of 13.8 percent in 2019, it said.

"It is expected to fall further to 12.8 percent this year and next," it added.

"The picture, however, is not the same across regions. In the Arab States, East Asia and South-East Asia and the Pacific, youth unemployment rates were higher in 2023 than in 2019."

The ILO's Global Employment Trends for Youth 2024 report cautioned over the growing casualization of work for young people, and the widening gap in the supply of young graduates and the number of suitable jobs for them to take up.

It said too many young people were NEETs and opportunities to access decent jobs were limited in emerging and developing economies.

The NEET rate stood at 20.4 percent in 2023, and two in three NEETs are women.

The NEET rate was 28.1 percent for young women in 2023, and 13.1 percent for young men.

Globally, more than half of young workers are in the informal employment.

Only in high- and upper-middle-income economies are the majority of young workers today in regular, secure work.