According to the U.N.’s labor office, youth unemployment is likely to grow globally to 12.9 percent by 2017. This is caused by the fact that more young people leave the work force and that the euro crisis has a negative impact on emerging economies.
The current rate of unemployment among youths aged 15 to 24 is 12.7 percent globally.
An International Labor Office report said on Tuesday that the highest regional rate of youth unemployment — above 25 percent — is projected to remain in North Africa and the Middle East. That is so because the crisis with the European common currency spreads from advanced countries to emerging economies that trade heavily with Europe.
What is interesting is the fact that the Middle East, is experiencing an unprecedented “youth bulge”. Over 30 percent of its population is between the ages of 15 and 29, which is over 100 million youth. This is a considerable part of the population as a whole. That is why the unemployment figures for the young people in the Middle East in particular look so scary. The youth unemployment rates for this region are projected to increase from 26.4 % for 2012 to nearly 29 % for 2017. The reason for that is the following paradox – more young people than ever are searching for jobs, while at the same time, the private sector is facing growing difficulty to find qualified employees. Most probably, this is caused by the failure of the education system in the Middle East to meet the needs of the job market.
The lead author of the report, Ekkehard Ernst, also noted that large numbers of young people globally are expected to completely drop out of the labor market or to prolong their education in order to postpone the moment when they will have to start working. That means that the actual number of youths who count as “unemployed” is projected to decline globally from 74 million in 2012 to 73 million in 2017.
