Source: People's Daily
Core reading
Young people are an important force for social progress and play a vital role in achieving sustainable development. Actively promoting youth employment and helping young people to give full play to their potential will not only help young people achieve all-round development, but also be of great significance for promoting sustainable economic and social development.
According to the ILO's recent Global Youth Employment Trends 2022 report, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought new challenges to the employment of youth aged 15 to 24. In the face of the adverse effects of multiple factors, many governments have actively taken measures to ensure the supply of jobs and stabilize the employment of young people.
Employment is slowly recovering, and the "NITs" need to pay special attention
The ILO report predicts that the total number of unemployed youth globally will fall to 73 million in 2022, 2 million fewer than in 2021. The report argues that although the pandemic has put more pressure on youth education, training and employment, the global youth employment situation is showing a slow recovery with the joint efforts of the international community.
The recovery in youth employment shows significant regional differences. The report predicts that by the end of 2022, youth unemployment in high-income countries will fall back to pre-pandemic levels, and youth unemployment in low- and middle-income countries will remain more than 1 percentage point higher than before the pandemic. In Latin American countries and Arab countries, youth unemployment is expected to reach 20.5 per cent and 24.8 per cent, respectively. In Africa, while youth unemployment of 12.7 per cent is lower than the global average, the main reason is that many young people choose to withdraw from the labour market altogether. The data shows that in 2020, more than 1 in 5 young people in Africa will become unemployed, uneducated or trained "NITs" (short for "non-education, employment or training" in English), and this trend is worsening.
The report calls for increased attention to the "NITE" and the employment of women. The report notes that the proportion of "NITts" rose to 23.3 percent in 2020, the highest level in 15 years. Even if macroeconomic conditions improve in the future, the employment opportunities and career prospects of the "NITs" will still be worse than those of their peers, and they will be plagued by the lack of access to formal employment opportunities and the low income level. In addition, young women face a more severe employment environment than young men, and the pandemic has exacerbated this trend.
Increase support to escort youth employment
In the face of employment pressure caused by the epidemic, many countries and regions have taken multiple measures at the same time, focusing on strengthening youth education, training, internships, etc., to escort youth employment, and strive to alleviate the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic on the job market.
The European Commission urged member states to actively use the "next generation EU" and funds under the EU's long-term budget to strengthen support for youth employment, and proposed that at least 22 billion euros should be invested to assist youth employment. In October 2020, the European Union adopted a proposal reaffirming its commitment to "ensuring that all young people under the age of 30 have access to quality employment, continuing education or training opportunities within 4 months of being unemployed or ending formal education". On this basis, some EU countries have revised or formulated their own youth employment strategies to strengthen youth employment security, such as the Irish government's proposal to strengthen the docking and service of young job seekers, and the Luxembourg government revising the "National Implementation Plan for Strengthening Youth Security".
Some countries have also developed employment strategies specifically for youth and specific groups. In December 2020, the Korean government issued the "Basic Plan for Youth Policy", which formulates strategies to support youth employment in response to the division of responsibilities of different government departments; New Zealand has developed the 2020-2022 Youth Plan, which focuses on providing targeted employment assistance to disadvantaged groups such as Indigenous youth and disabled youth; In October 2020, a project to promote youth employment, "Million Opportunities", jointly launched by the Brazilian government, local enterprises and international organizations, was officially launched. The project aims to provide 1 million opportunities for Brazilian adolescents and youth aged 14 to 24 to receive quality education or training in digital skills, entrepreneurial skills, and specific vocational skills. Three months after the project, more than 5,000 employment and training opportunities were offered to young people, and thousands of young people attended the training courses.
Internships are essential to ensure that young people successfully complete the transition from campus to the workplace. In OECD countries, for example, about 3/4 of young people with non-tertiary education at or above vocational high school and above accumulate valuable work experience through internships. However, due to the impact of the epidemic, many young people have been forced to interrupt or cancel their internship programs. To ensure that businesses can continue to offer internship opportunities during the pandemic, some Member States have introduced new incentives. For example, in July 2020, the German government launched the "Protection of Apprenticeship Jobs" program to provide financial support for small and medium-sized enterprises affected by the epidemic, incentivize enterprises to continue to train apprentices, and reward those small and medium-sized enterprises that accept apprentices from bankrupt enterprises and continue to provide training for them. At present, the German government has extended the program and increased the amount of incentives.
Some countries also provide recruitment subsidies for enterprises to actively increase the enthusiasm of enterprises to recruit young employees. In September 2020, the Chilean government introduced an employment subsidy for young workers, and new enterprises that employ young employees, female employees or disabled employees aged 18-24 can receive subsidies for a period of 6 months and up to 60% of the monthly salary of employees. The Italian government has further increased the amount of subsidies for enterprises to employ "NIT" employees under the age of 36 and relaxed the application restrictions, and eligible enterprises can enjoy subsidies for a period of 3 years and up to 6,000 euros per year.
Provide skills education to help young people seize new opportunities
"The epidemic has exposed that we still have shortcomings in solving the employment needs of young people." Martha Newton, Deputy Director-General of the International Labour Organization, believes that countries need to adapt to the economic development situation and provide more jobs in the new economic field for young people.
The ILO report points out that investment in strategic sectors and economic sectors with growing social needs, such as the green economy, the blue economy, the digital economy, and the creative economy, can effectively increase the supply of jobs and reduce the proportion of "NITE". The report predicts that by 2030, investment in areas such as the green economy will enable global economic growth of 4.2% and create 139 million jobs, of which 32 million will benefit young people.
Experts say that to help young people seize opportunities and better adapt to changing labor markets, governments should strengthen vocational skills training for young people. "We need to provide large-scale skills education to improve the ability of young people to adapt to new formats such as the digital economy, so that they can better integrate into the changing labor market." David Morris, vice president of the United Nations Asia-Pacific Alliance for Sustainable Business, said.
While creating more employment opportunities for young people and helping them improve their own capabilities, the legitimate rights and interests of young people cannot be ignored. ILO expert Suzanne Puerto believes that in the face of the current rise of the gig economy, the sharing economy and self-employment, the protection of workers' rights is very important. It is necessary to protect the rights and interests of young people themselves, but also to ensure that their potential is fully realized, and to continuously expand the sources of income for young people. "We need to build a platform for them to continue to grow and move towards a better future." Puerto said.