1. Global Employment Trends for Youth Steven Kapsos International Labour Organization UN/DESA Expert Group Meeting on Adolescents, Youth and Development New York, 21-22 July 2011

2. 1. The big picture: A. Why focus on youth? B. Youth vulnerabilities in the labour market C. What we know and what we don’t know 2. Labour market trends for youth: the pre-crisis picture 3. Impact of the global economic crisis on youth in the labour market 4. Policy responses

4.  Inefficiencies in youth labour market (unemployment, discouragement, working poverty) are costly  Lack of decent work at an early age compromises future employment prospects and impacts behaviour  A young person with hopes and options is happy; take away the options and youth become angry  Future consumers, producers … societies

5.  Educational deficiencies  Skills/talent mismatch  Lack of work experience, professional contacts, networks  Precarious employment contracts/dual labour markets  Last-in, first-out phenomenon  Barriers to entrepreneurship

6. Quantifying youth vulnerability: What do we know? What we do not know... Unemployed Discouraged workers ? Fully employed ? Underemployed ? In full-time education ? Other? Breakdown of the inactive by reason - how many are in each category? Inactive Employed Shares of underemployed v. fully employed in total employment? Size of the vulnerable youth population?? What we know... Inactive share increased from 45.3 to 49.2% Employed share decreased from 47.9 to 44.7% Unemployed share decreased from 6.8 to 6.1% Share of working poor - 28.1%

8. Source: ILO, GET Youth, August 2010

12.  Young women tend to have more difficulty finding work than young men.  In most OECD countries, unemployment is higher among the lesser educated youth; in developing countries, it is the highly educated who face longer job searches.  Unemployment rates are typically higher among ethnic minorities.

14. Source: ILO, GET Youth, August 2010

16. p = projection Source: ILO, GET Youth, August 2010

17. p = projection Source: ILO, GET Youth, August 2010

18. M = male; F = female Source: Laborsta

19.  Large increase in youth unemployment rates in Spain; little change in Germany.  But in Germany, nearly one-third of those who are unemployed were already unemployed for longer than 12 months; only recently the case in Spain and the UK. Source: Laborsta Source: Eurostat

20.  Slight increase in youth part-time employment rates but impact on temporary employment is less obvious.  Part-time employment more relevant for UK youth, but incidence of temporary employment is very low compared to Germany and Spain. Source: Eurostat

21. Source: ILO, Global Employment Trends 2011

22.  Lack of decent work is nothing new for majority of youth  Dominance of self-employment acts as a buffer, unemployment rates do not significantly increase … increase in vulnerable employment and casual labour in an “increasingly crowded” informal economy  Secondary consequences on education and training, pregnancy and parenthood, health

23.  Impacts timing of labour market entry (“hiding out” in education), the smoothness of the transition (multiple spells of unemployment), social norms adopted (mistrust in the State and economic system)  “Lost generation” ?

25. Key considerations  Youth are a heterogeneous group: important to profile youth for early identification of vulnerabilities  Multi component interventions, well-focused on specific needs of youth and the labour market 1. Addressing skills mismatches  Facilitate access to vocational training  Entrepreneurship programmes  Soft and life skills training programmes  Linking employers with educational institutions

26. 2. Addressing slow job growth barriers  Active labour market policies  Public works programmes  Public service programmes 3. Addressing inadequate job matching  Employment and intermediation services 4. Addressing poor signalling  Skills certification systems 5. Supporting strong labour market information systems

27. Global Employment Trends for Youth Steven Kapsos International Labour Organization kapsos@ilo.org UN/DESA Expert Group Meeting on Adolescents, Youth and Development New York, 21-22 July 2011