Adolescence

Almost one quarter of the world’s working poor were youngpeople in 2008; moreover, these 150-million-plus young poorworkers tended to be predominantly engaged in agriculture,which left little time for them to gain the skills and educationthat could improve their earnings potential and futureproductivity. While education and demographic trends wereeasing pressures on youth in regional markets for most ofthe first decade of this century, the youth labour force continuedto expand in the most impoverished regions of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Across the world, however,youth employment trends were fairly bleak, particularly inCEE/CIS and the Middle East and North Africa regions.The economic crisis has resulted in the largest cohort ofunemployed youth ever, estimated at around 81 millionworldwide in 2009. Moreover, the ILO report indicated thatyouth unemployment has proved much more vulnerable tothe crisis than adult unemployment. This bodes ill for thenew entrants to the global labour market – particularly youngwomen, who typically experience more difficulty than youngmen in finding work. In most developing regions, the gapbetween male and female unemployment rates has widenedduring the crisis. Going forward, youth unemployment ratesand numbers are only expected to begin to decline in 2011,but the projected recovery will be slower than for adults. 8Vocational training enables adolescents and young people to acquire marketable skills.A 16-year-old boy makes a sandwich while his instructor watches during a cooking classat the Wan Smolbag Theatre Centre in Tagabe, a suburb of Port Vila, Vanuatu.Throughout the world, a major difficulty in tackling youthunemployment is that many adolescents who have been toschool are emerging with insufficient skills – especially thoseFigure 3.2: Global trends in youth unemployment12Sub-Saharan Africa1424North Africa2723Middle East23Latin America14and Caribbean16200910South Asia91998South-East Asia15and Pacific129East Asia9Central and South-Eastern21Europe (non EU) and CIS23Developed economies18and European Union1413World120 5 10 15 20 25 30Youth unemployment rate, %Source: International Labour Organization, Global Trends in Youth Employment, ILO, Geneva, 2010, Annex 1, Table A5.46THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S CHILDREN 2011