Youth unemployment rising globally: ILO

Employment among youth globally is on the decline and the fall has been sharper during the worldwide downturn between 2007 and 2009, a report has said.

According to a new report by the International Labour Organisation, though the declining trend grew sharper during that period, it may indicate that youth are preferring to spend more time in education as well as population growth outpacing the jobs available.

The report, called Global Employment Trends for Youth, says that at the end of 2009, there were an estimated 81 million unemployed young people in the world.

This was 7.8 million more than the number in 2007 at the start of the global crisis. The youth unemployment rate rose sharply during the economic crisis - more sharply than ever before - from 11.9 to 13.0 per cent.

The report forecasts a continued increase in the youth unemployment rate in 2010 to 13.1 per cent, followed by a moderate decline in 2011.

The youth captured in this report is between the age of 15 and 25 years, a period when many would still be pursuing education.

The share of youth to the family income basket compared to adults has been high, often three times more in most countries in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

In India, for instance, youth comprises 36 per cent of the total population, compared to the adult share of 24 per cent.

In comparison, Peru has a youth share of 48 per cent compared with an adult share of 18 per cent, the data cited by ILO says.

Because the youth population grew at a quicker pace than youth employment, the share of youth who are employed (the youth employment-to-population-ratio) saw a decline from 47.9 to 44.7 per cent between 1998 and 2008, the report says.