Global Employment Trends for Youth 2024: Decent Work, Brighter Futures (Executive Summary) (ILO)

Summary

• The global youth unemployment rate in 2023 was 13%, a 15-year low.p.2
• The total number of unemployed young people worldwide was 64.9 million, the lowest since the start of the millennium.p.2
• The youth employment-to-population ratio rebounded to 35% in 2023.p.2
• 20.4% of the world's youth were not in employment, education or training (NEET) in 2023.p.3
• The NEET rate among young women is 28.1% versus 13.1% among young men in 2023.p.3
• The global youth unemployment rate is expected to decrease to 12.8% in 2024 and 2025.p.3
• The share of the global youth population in schooling or training was 48% in 2023, up from 38% in 2000.p.5

Key insights

1. One in three (33%) of the world's young people lives in a country that is off track in its target to reduce the youth NEET rate.p.3
2. Two out of every three youth in NEET status are women.p.3
3. In low-income countries, only one in five young adults aged 25 to 29 find a secure paid job.p.4
4. The share of young adults in a secure paid job is 76% in high-income countries in 2023.p.4
5. Educational mismatches have increased as the supply of educated youth outweighs the supply of highly skilled jobs in middle-income countries.p.5