The International Labour Organization (ILO) has released a report that finds the number of young people around the world not in employment, education or training (NEET) (SDG target 8.6.1) has been increasing since 2017. The report states that this SDG target “will be missed,” underscoring the need to increase “efforts to generate decent jobs for the next generation of workers.”

The report titled, ‘Global Employment Trends for Youth 2020: Technology and the Future of Jobs,’ highlights that the number of young people classified as NEET has risen from 259 million in 2016 to 267 million in 2019, and is expected to continue increasing to approximately 273 million in 2021. Young women are twice as likely as young men to face precarious employment situations, and two-thirds of those classified as NEET are young women. The gender gap is even more pronounced in the Arab States and Southern Asia, where cultural and social norms are more likely to prevent women from pursuing education or working outside the house. Youth unemployment also varies by region, from 30% in Northern Africa to less than 9% in Northern America.

Two-thirds of those classified as NEET are young women. 

The report finds that a narrow focus on vocational training, a lack of jobs to match qualifications, and increasing automation are creating a “precarious future in the labor market” for young people. Employees between the ages of 15 and 24 are at greater risk of losing their jobs because of further technological advances than older workers.

The report also identifies challenges with vocational training, which tends to impart occupation-specific skills that become obsolete faster than general education skills. As a result, employees with vocational training are even more vulnerable. To address these concerns, the report calls for modernizing vocational training programmes to meet the evolving demands of the digital economy.

Young people who complete tertiary education are less likely to lose jobs to automation. However, the increase in the number of young people with degrees has outpaced the demand for graduate labor, resulting in falling returns to tertiary education and pushing down wages for graduates. The report addresses a number of additional challenges, including informal and less secure forms of employment and a digital divide between regions and generations.

The report recommends an integrated policy framework to support young people’s ascent into decent jobs and to assure that new technologies positively impact on youth employment. The report argues for policies to generate a sufficient number of decent jobs, to equip young people with the skills needed for those jobs, and ensure social protection for workers.

The ILO also produced briefing notes on youth employment trends by region. [ILO Press Release] [UN Press Release]  [Publication: Global Employment Trends for Youth 2020]