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The South Asian (SA) countries, including Bangladesh, recorded the lowest youth unemployment rates in 15 years in 2023, according to a latest ILO report.
But the unemployment rate of 15.1 per cent is historically the region's highest, which the report characterised high rates of youth not in employment, education, and training (NEET), due to lack of equal opportunities or access to training and jobs and because of exclusion of young women from schooling and employment opportunities.
The NEET rate among young women in the sub-region was nearly four times greater than the rate of young men, at 42.4 per cent and 11.5 per cent, respectively, in 2023.
At 31 percentage points, this marks the largest gender gap in youth NEET rates across the world.
The report, titled Global Employment Trends for Youth 2024 (GET for Youth), was published on Monday.
It said the global labour market outlook for young people has improved in the last four years, and the upward trend is expected to continue for two more years.
The report, however, cautioned that the number of 15-24-year-olds who are NEET is concerning, and the post-COVID pandemic employment recovery has not been universal.
Young people in certain regions and many young women are not seeing the benefits of the economic recovery.
The 2023 youth unemployment rate globally, at 13 per cent, equivalent to 64.9 million people, represents a 15-year low and a fall from the pre-pandemic rate of 13.8 per cent in 2019.
It is expected to fall further to 12.8 per cent this year and next. The picture, however, is not the same across regions. In the Arab states, East Asia and South-East Asia and the Pacific, youth unemployment rates were higher in 2023 than in 2019.
ILO also noted that too many young people across the globe are NEET, and opportunities to access decent jobs remain limited. One in five young people, or 20.4 per cent, globally were NEET in 2023. Two in three of these NEETs were female.
The report also highlighted the lack of progress in gaining decent jobs for the youth who are in work.
Globally, more than half of young workers are in informal employment. Three in four young workers in the low-income countries will get only a self-employed or temporary paid job.
The report cautioned that the continuing high NEET rates and insufficient growth of decent jobs are causing growing anxiety among the today's youth.
"None of us can look forward to a stable future when millions of young people around the world do not have decent work. As a result, they are feeling insecure," explained ILO Director-General Gilbert F Houngbo.
Without equal opportunities to education and decent jobs, millions of young people are missing out on their chances for a better future, he added.
The ILO report also called for greater attention on strengthening the foundations of decent work and reinforcing their hope for a brighter future.
This 12th edition of the GET for Youth marked the report's 20-year anniversary. It also revealed that growth in "modern" services and in manufacturing jobs for youth has been limited, although modernisation can be brought to traditional sectors through digitalisation and AI.
The report called for increased and more effective investment, including in boosting job creation, strengthening the institutions that support young people through their labour market transitions, integrating employment and social protection for youth, and tackling global inequalities through improved international cooperation, public-private partnerships and financing for development.
"We believe the report's findings and recommendations will be helpful in shaping an environment for a better future for youths in Bangladesh, aligning with the 'zero unemployment' priority of the interim government," said Tuomo Poutiainen, ILO Country Director for Bangladesh.
With approximately two million young people entering the labour force annually and more than a quarter of the population (25.81 per cent) within the 15-29 age group, Bangladesh holds immense potential to harness the benefits of a demographic dividend, he added.