The challenge of finding jobs for young people

by Maxwell Haywood Fri, Aug 20, 2010

A glance at the global picture of youth employment reveals some striking characteristics. The recent employment report of the International Labor Office (ILO), which was released last week, entitled “Global Employment Trends for Youth,” highlights the serious unemployment situation confronting young people and societies throughout the world.{{more}}

According to the report, in 2009, 81 million young people were unemployed. Between 2007 and 2009, the number of unemployed young people increased by 7.8 million. In addition, there are about 152 million young people who work but still live in extreme poverty. They make up a large part of the population of “working poor” or those who have a job but do not earn enough to rise above poverty. The global population of the working poor consists of about 28 percent young people.

Priority to youth unemployment issues

In human and societal terms, what do these numbers tell us about the situation of young people? With so many young people unemployed, a nation’s development stands to lose out because of the lost contributions that young people could have made as workers and community residents. It is known that young people possess lots of energy, enthusiasm, creativity and flexibility and these attributes are vital to the development process of any nation or workplace.

It is easy for society to blame youth for their joblessness. They are said to be lazy, not ambitious, or give up too easily when looking for work or not looking hard enough. Nevertheless, youth unemployment is fundamentally a function of society, as it relates to how that society is organized, allocates resources, the values it promotes, and the ideology and philosophy of those who govern the society. All of these issues and more impact the high unemployment rates we see in societies around the world.

Top priority should be given to youth employment issues for two reasons.

First, youth are being told to live by the rules established by society. Yet even when they do so, too many of them continue to live precariously because of the lack of opportunities for their advancement. They see that the rules do not serve most of them. The questions many young persons ask are these: Why should we live by the rules of society when the society is not providing for youth livelihood? Why not look for short-cuts? Why not engage in illegal activities to sustain life?

Second, a nation that fails to provide work for its people loses much legitimacy in the eyes of young people. They see the system as being a fake and not worth the words it expresses about how much it cares for youth. Young people see and hear many promises coming from government, the private sector, cooperatives sector, and civil society organizations. In short, many of them see the State as being illegitimate because it is not providing meaningful employment for them. This is a bad situation from which spring many problematic youth behaviors and attitudes.

Serious consequences for youth

Unemployment has serious consequences for young people and their society. How do they survive? Even though they are living in a capitalist society that is supposed to generate wealth and put people to work, the unemployed youths still have to fend for themselves.

For young people looking to elevate themselves, how will they pay for education without decent employment? How would they build homes? How would they put food on their tables? How would they clothe themselves? How would they enjoy entertainment and leisure activities? And there are many more questions. It takes money to do all these things. To get this money, legal employment is the best way to do so. But is legal employment accessible to many of these young people of working age?

The labor market is very harsh on young people. Many remain underemployed and working in jobs that are below their training and qualifications. Many have high debt resulting from student loans. Therefore, they rely on jobs with adequate compensation in order to pay back these student loans. Many young workers have to turn to the informal economy to make ends meet. However, young people face daunting problems in the informal economy. For example, the informal economy is usually accompanied by hardly any protection, low paying and makeshift jobs, and underemployment. In this context, it is easy to see the frustration and discontent of young people.

Intense competition

There is intense competition among young people for the few jobs available to them. Despite the enormous resources existing in all countries of the world, and despite the fact that there is plenty of work to be done in all nations, the supply of workers is greater than the demand for workers. In light of the fact that job openings are extremely scarce, many young people are vulnerable to losing hope. This leads to elevated feelings of insecurity, low self-esteem, and pessimism, which rules out a bright future.

Young people are becoming increasingly restless. Those young people who are in primary and secondary schools and not yet on the job market do not have much faith in the society to find jobs for them. Those actually on the job market already are feeling high levels of frustration and humiliation as door after door is closed in their faces —- no vacancy, please do not apply! Urgent solutions are needed!

In a follow-up article, I will discuss the factors and causes of youth unemployment, and will also highlight strategies that could change this difficult situation.