This article by Robbie Lawrence, highlights how young people are very much part of the solution to youth unemployment. This post is part of the Wikiprogress Governance and Civic Engagement Series
“Education is our top priority but, once educated we want to be trained, enabled – and funded – to take action to address the challenges faced by our generation through youth-led development. We want, in Gandhi’s words, to ‘be the change’ we want to see in the world…” World Youth Congress, Hawaii, 1999
On the
same day that the Bank of England upgraded its economic forecast, stating that
inflation is expected to drop within the next two years, the Trades Union
Congress reported that UK unemployment figures grew by 15,000 in the first
three months of 2012 to 2.52 million. Rising employment numbers in the latter
months of 2012 had offered a level of respite for the British government
following a bruising financial year, however, today’s findings show that
joblessness is still extensive.
The issue
remains embedded among young people, with jobless rates soaring towards the one
million mark and standing at 21.2% across the country. The TUC is concerned that while
employment prospects for older workers have been improving, those for young people are far worse, and have deteriorated further since mid-2010. The damaging
effects of unemployment on young people are well documented, and there is an
increasing risk that the UK’s current 15-24 year olds will suffer lasting damage to their
earnings potential and job prospects throughout their lives.
Global
figures are equally gloomy. Over the last few years we have been inundated with statistics on the deteriorating
situation in Europe (particularly Spain) for young job seekers and in Africa
well over half of 15-24 year olds are currently out of work. According to a UN led report released last week, the weakening world wide recovery has further
aggravated the youth job crisis and as a result the problem will continue
growing over the next five years. The International Labour Organization’s ‘Global Employment Trends forYouth 2013: A generation at risk’ estimates that 73.4 million young people (12.6 percent) are expected to be out of work in 2013, and by 2018, this will have reached
12.8 percent.
Graph taken from ILO Report 2013 |
The
report stipulates that young people face persistent unemployment, a proliferation of temporary
jobs and growing discouragement in advanced economies; and poor quality,
informal, subsistence jobs in developing countries:
“The economic and social costs of unemployment, long-term unemployment, discouragement and widespread low-quality jobs for young people continue to rise and undermine economies’ growth potential,” ILO - Global Employment Trends for Youth 2013 report.
Despite
vocal concern around the issue, it seems that governments and organisations
have struggled to find an effective means of combating youth unemployment. The
recent World Economic Forum in Davos touched upon the subject on a number of
occasions with some leaders suggesting that a global fund for unemployment be
implemented. Yet there have been murmurings among critics that such steps are
simply inadequate when faced with the ‘tidal wave’ of jobless young people
sweeping the world’s nations. Lynda Cratton of the London Business School
believes that in a similar way to global warming, the sheer complexity of the
challenge renders it almost impossible to solve.
Following
the release of ‘A generation at risk’ the ILO’s assistant director-general for
policy José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs stated, ‘These
figures underline the need to focus policies on growth, massive improvements in
training systems and targeted youth employment actions’.
Two recent Wikichild Spotlight reports look at tackling youth unemployment through effective governance.
- Developed
by UNICEF and Save the Children,
Children's Rights
and Business Principles provides a comprehensive
framework for understanding and addressing the impact of business on the rights
and well-being of children. The Children’s Rights and Business Principles are
built on existing standards and practices and helps to explain the opportunities
for business of investing in children.
- First
published in Nairobi last year, UN-HABITAT’s State of the Field
in Youth Development sheds light on how youth are positively
impacting communities around the world. As part of wider series, this
particular report stresses how young people can be beneficial to communities,
and how local, national and international governments can implement, engage and
support youth and youth led initiatives.
Both
reports look to brand young people as ambassadors of change. ‘Children’s
Right’s and Business Principles’ recognizes that children are among the most
marginalised members of society, yet when provided with the agency to
participate, they have shown that they can offer vital alternative viewpoints
and make effective contributions. Similarly, ‘State of the Field’ emphasizes
the need to have faith in the power of young people to contribute
constructively to the good of society. It seems that both publications hope to
change the attitude of governing bodies towards young people by showing that
they themselves have placed youths at the center of their own projects. The
‘State of the Field’ report lists countless examples of how initiatives led by
young people have positively benefited society.
Youth
unemployment is undoubtedly one of the greatest challenges facing governments this
century and will worsen as populations swell and education becomes more readily
available. However, the two publications featured provide hard facts about
how the integration of young people in a country’s workforce can catalyse economic
prosperity. With the development of more projects similar to the ones mentioned
in the ‘State of the Field’ it seems that we can go someway to combating the
problem.
Robbie Lawrence
Wikichild Coordinator
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