The International Labour Organisation (has predicted that global youth unemployment rate would rise by 13.1 per cent at the end of 2016.
This would be an increase from 12.9 per cent recorded at the end of 2015.
This was contained in a research report of ILO’s World Employment and Social Outlook for Youth 2016, Trends for Youths.
The report quoted Deborah Greenfield, ILO Deputy Director-General for Policy as saying that global number of unemployed youth would rise by half a million “to reach 71 million in the first such increase in three years”.
Greenfield said: “Of greater concern is the share and number of young people, often in emerging and developing countries, who live in extreme or moderate poverty in spite of having a job.
“In fact, 156 million or 37.7 per cent of working youth are in extreme or moderate poverty as compared with 26 per cent of working adults.
“The alarming rise in youth unemployment and the equally disturbing high levels of youths, who still live in poverty, show how difficult it will be to end poverty globally by 2030.”
Greenfield said there was the need for countries to redouble their efforts to achieve sustainable economic growth and decent work.
She noted that the report also highlighted wide disparities between young women and men in the labour market, adding that there was need for ILO member-states and social partners to be addressed urgently.
The research also quoted Steven Tobin, ILO Senior Economist, as saying that the labour force participation rate for young men stood at 53.9 per cent as compared with 37.3 per cent for young women.
Tobin, who is the lead author of the report, said the disparity between young men and young women represented a gap of 16.6 per cent.
Tobin was of the view: “The challenge is particularly acute in Southern Asia, Arab States and Northern Africa, where female youth participation rates are respectively, 32.9, 32.3 and 30.2 per cent lower than those of male youth in 2016.”
He, however, said unemployment increases were driven by the slowdown in emerging economies.
Tobin said global economic growth in 2016 was estimated at 3.2 per cent, 0.4 per cent lower than the figure predicted in late 2015.
He added that this was driven by a deeper than expected recession in some key emerging commodity exporting countries and stagnating growth in some developed countries.
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