In a report published last month, which assesses global employment trends for youth for 2022, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) divulged that unemployment in this group, estimated at 15.6 percent, was three times higher than the adult rate in 2021. Based on available data, some 75 million young people around the world were unemployed and this was exacerbated somewhat by the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced business closures (some temporary, others permanent) in many sectors.
While the trends for this year are more positive, much of the growth will occur/is occurring in western high-income countries and the situation in low-income countries, including in Latin America, where the youth unemployment rate is projected at 20.5 per cent in 2022, remains a worrying one. In comparison, the rates in other parts of the world are projected at 16.4 percent in Europe and Central Asia, 14.9 percent in Asia Pacific, and 12.7 percent in Africa. Higher youth unemployment rates are only projected in the Arab states – 24.8 percent overall and 42.5 percent among young women.
It should be noted here that the ILO’s data pertains to young people aged 15 to 24 years old and these figures only refer to those in formal employment. There are many countries in the developing world – Guyana included – where young people work informally. They may toil on a day-to-day basis, which places them in the job-insecure bracket. This means that if they fail to show up for whatever reason, including but not limited to fire, natural disaster, illness, death of a family member, or lack of access to transportation, they are not only not paid, but could return to find they have been replaced by other intrepid youths like themselves.
Further, if the employer has no work for them on any given day, they more than likely suffer a financial loss, particularly if getting to the job site involves using public transportation. There are even more informal instances, where young people work for food, to pay off their families’ debts, or are indentured to the urban wealthy in order to live in cities to acquire an education. These under-the-radar exploitations rarely, if ever, gain the attention of those in authority. Sadly, they often involve children under the age of 15, which make them that much more abhorrent.
On the bright side, the ILO report also noted that some young people who were out of the labour force had not entered by choice as they were pursuing education goals, while others were working and studying simultaneously. On the dim side, the data revealed that in 2020 about one in five young people were not involved in education, employment or training of any sort and this was the highest that figure had been in 15 years. Incidentally, the numbers were higher among the 20 to 24-year-old age group, than those aged 15 to 19, which should give us pause for thought.
It is well known, but was also stressed by the ILO, that normally, young people entering the labour market face tremendous challenges. Some either find them insurmountable and not being mentally or financially able to keep knocking at a door that shows no signs of opening, take a job in an area unrelated to their field of study. Usually, this is a job for which they are overqualified. The ILO report referred to this as “scarring” and pointed out that it could lead to them being trapped in “an employment trajectory that involves informality and low pay”. Apart from the obvious individual frustration that must result from this, on the macro level, it is an utter waste of what is often an expensive education.
Unfortunately, this will continue to occur as many businesses do not have a youth employment policy. Therefore, advertised vacancies will emphasise a preference for experience in the given field, which automatically discriminates against the young school leaver, newly trained or just graduated youth. Generally, this is because employers are wary of training employees simply to lose them shortly after to a competitor, but sometimes the fact is that they couldn’t care less about young people and their futures, or staff in general, as long as the work gets done.
In recognition of this, and to counteract it, schools, training facilities, and tertiary institutions as well have for years now been seeking collaboration with businesses to offer students internships or work-study attachments that would help them acquire experience in their chosen fields prior to graduation. While this has been and continues to be done with a great deal of success, it only addresses part of the problem.
To fix the other part, it is necessary to dig much deeper. In Guyana, for instance, there is a practice of publicly celebrating academic excellence that begins with children as young as 11 years old. There is nothing wrong with this. However, there needs to be balance so that excellence in other areas is equally celebrated.
As much as awarding academic superiority fosters competition and might propel others to strive harder, there is a downside. Those who don’t reach the pinnacle despite trying their hardest, could decide to opt out if they are being completely ignored. The fact is that education is more than just passing exams and government needs to demonstrate an awareness of this, if indeed it is aware.
Medicine, law, economics and business offer excellent careers, but the world does not just revolve around them. Writing, art, music, drama, are fields that are of absolute necessity to our humanness. Creatives should therefore also be lauded and nurtured; sadly, this rarely occurs. Sports are mostly relegated to hobby status among children, but we wonder why our athletes don’t reach the same heights as those from other countries.
Furthermore, what country can survive without farmers, plumbers, electricians, firefighters, policemen, and soldiers to name a few? Yet, there is a tendency to ignore professionals in these areas as not important. The result is that children who might have aspirations in these spheres, feel like failures before they even begin to pursue these career paths. The point is that there is much government can do to curb youth unemployment without actually creating jobs. It really just needs to care.
