Youth Livelihoods and Employment

The International Labour Office (ILO) estimates that some 88 million young women and men are unemployed throughout the world, accounting for 47 percent of all the 186 million unemployed persons globally.

Many more young people work long hours for low pay, struggling to make a living in the informal economy. There are an estimated 59 million young people between 15 and 17 years of age who are engaged in hazardous forms of work. Young people actively seeking to participate in the labor market are two to three times more likely than older generations to find themselves unemployed.

One billion people will become of working age within the next decade. While rapid globalization and technological change offer new opportunities for productive work and incomes for the lucky few, for many working age young people, these trends increase the vulnerability inherent in the transition from childhood to adulthood.

Across the planet, millions of young women and men are failing to gain an entry into the workforce, and the disadvantage suffered by young women is greater. The vast majority of jobs available to youth are low paid, insecure, and with few benefits or prospects for advancement.

The Challenge

For a growing number of young people, employment may not provide an income sufficient to cover basic necessities. In developing countries, a rising number of young people work in the informal economy where they earn low wages and are often subjected to poor or even exploitative working conditions. Many young people work in what is known as the intermediary zone. They are under employed, engaged in casual employment or in a variety of part-time jobs. Youth unemployment can lead to marginalization, exclusion, frustration, low self-esteem, and sometimes behavior that imposes a burden on society.

Youth employment is both an integral part of the Millennium Declaration and a key contribution to meeting other Millennium Goals, including those relating to poverty reduction.

Young People Have a Role

Young people are asking that their voices be heard, that their issues be addressed, and that their roles be recognized. Rather than being viewed as a target group for which employment must be found, they want to be accepted as partners for development, helping to chart a common course and shaping the future for everyone.

The expected inflow of young people into the labor market, rather than being viewed as a problem, should be recognized as an enormous opportunity and potential for economic and social development. Young people as such should be viewed as an asset, not a threat. In relation to the job market, young people are the solution, while unemployment is the problem, not vice versa.

Policy Implications

Traditionally international initiatives focused on the issue of youth employment have expressed a commitment to engage youth groups as equal partners in the policy making process. All too often these promises have in reality meant little more than "consultation" and the resulting policy has been a perceived notion of 'what is best' for young people. Such policy-making has led to the implementation of policy that has consistently failed to address the underlying concerns of young people and the causes of youth unemployment. Subsequently, the problem has continued unchecked.

With young people particularly at risk for being unemployed and with the negative consequences that this lack of employment and regular income may entail, national youth policies must give consideration to employment issues, just as national employment policies must give particular consideration to youth employment and lack hereof.

Youth Microfinance and Livelihood

Microfinance has evolved into a very powerful tool to lift people out of poverty by providing them with access to savings, credit and other financial services. By stimulating self-employment, it replaces welfare-oriented programs and provides young people with valuable entrepreneurial skills that can help them improve the life prospects considerably.

The livelihood approach entails^[1]:

• Giving youth salaried jobs and other opportunities to earn income.
• Providing financial services and job training.
• Developing institutions, alliances, and networks for youth to advance their economic interests.
• Promoting policy and social changes that improve young people's livelihood prospects.

Youth livelihood initiatives and microfinance programs have been successfully used to:

• Combat child labor.
• Support the fight against HIV/AIDS.
• Support reproductive health interventions (e.g. female garment workers in Bangladesh marry later and delay childbirth after marriage).
• Decrease gang membership and unsocial behavior.

Training aspects such as risk management, planning, and marketing are professional skills that might have important spillover effects into young people's private and public life, resulting in more responsible behavior towards their families and local communities.