Fighting youth unemployment

The global youth unemployment rate has proved sticky, and remained close to its crisis peak. At 12.6 per cent in 2011 and projected at 12.7 per cent in 2012, the global youth unemployment rate remains at least a full percentage point above its level in 2007. Nearly 75 million youth are unemployed around the world, an increase of more than 4 million since 2007.

Everybody agrees that we need immediate action against youth unemployment. More than a hundred young people from around the world involved in the promotion of decent work for youth met in Geneva, Switzerland in late May 2012 for the three-day “Youth Employment Forum” organised by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Young activists, NGO members, specialists, researchers, entrepreneurs and trade unionists discussed ways to promote youth employment and entrepreneurship in the face of a global jobs crisis that affects 75 million youth. They also shared their experiences and views on the current dramatic global jobs crisis that disproportionately affects them.

Most of plenaries and panels discussed about the current youth employment crisis and the key issues on decent work for youth. Six parallel “Fish Bowl Sessions” covered over 6 sub-themes of the Forum: “500 million jobs needed for youth: where from?”, “What education and training are needed for work?”, “How to facilitate job search and transitions to decent jobs?”, “What about job quality and rights?”, “What role do entrepreneurship and social enterprises play?” and “How do we ensure participation and empowerment?”.

A special feature of the Forum was the Marketplace where several UN entities, youth organizations and the ILO come together to share information on innovative approaches to youth employment. At the same time it was held a TV Panel discussion where experts and journalists addressed the topic of youth transitions to decent work.

Young activists and youth workers always look for inspiration to improve their offer to community. Presenting different good practices on youth employment, learning from them, get ideas and replicate them was an important part of the Forum. Good practices from India, Jordan, Peru, Turkey and Zimbabwe were presented to the delegates and working groups were formed to brainstorm and put ideas into action!

ILO Director-General Juan Somavia in his inspirational opening speech told the Forum delegates “What you represent is trying to change society for the better” and stated “Youth need to know that they are capable of creating changes. Make sure your voices are heard and that you are creating platforms for the mass to hear our voices.”

ILO is one of the major fighters of youth unemployment! The ILO's programme on youth employment (YEP) operates through a global network of technical teams at its headquarters in Geneva and in more than 60 offices around the world. It provides assistance to countries in developing coherent and coordinated interventions on youth employment. This integrated approach combines macro-economic policies and targeted measures which address labour demand and supply, as well as the quantity and quality of employment.

All the Forum delegates left Geneva full of ideas, inspiration, enthusiasm and creativity to work on projects in their community that provide a better future for young people. The conclusions of the Forum discussions were shared with the International Labour Conference, which brought together more than 5,000 government, employer and worker delegates from the ILO’s 184 member states.