The Challenge of Youth Employment: New Findings and Approaches

The challenge of youth employment is not new. Even in good economic times, young people experience unemployment rates that are 3–4 times higher than adults. More than three out of four of the world’s young workers have informal jobs, while young people are overrepresented in working poverty and less protected forms of work, such as temporary and gig employment. During economic crises, the situation for young people in the labour market deteriorates much faster than for adults and persists for longer periods. The scarring effects for youth were clear after the global financial crisis (GFC) of 2008–09. Beyond these negative trends, it is important to recognise where countries have done much better in getting young people into decent and productive employment, including in the wake of crises. The success of European countries in tackling youth unemployment and inactivity has led to many attempts to replicate the policy approach, which involves integrated programmes such as the EU Youth Guarantee. However, there are major constraints to applying such an approach in developing countries and emerging economies. Against this background, the paper reviews the longer run trends in youth employment, along with the impact of crises on young people, focusing on the COVID-19 pandemic, in both advanced and developing countries. Next, it explores the lessons learned on how best to deal with youth employment challenges drawing from recent global meta-analyses. While the paper highlights that not all lessons can be extrapolated, it is important that countries develop integrated youth employment strategies that address job creation, quality of jobs, and inclusion.