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University of Wisconsin–Madison
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty

Global Youth Unemployment

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  • Youth unemployment hits record high, By Katie Allen, August 11, 2010, The Guardian: “Global youth unemployment has hit a record high and is expected to rise further, according to a report from the International Labour Organisation, which echoes warnings in the UK that young people continue to be the hardest hit by the recession. Of around 620 million economically active 15 to 24-year-olds, 81 million were unemployed at the end of 2009, the highest number since records began in 1991, the UN agency says. That put the global youth unemployment rate at 13%, up from 11.9% just before the global downturn in 2007…”
  • UN labor report shows drastic increase in youth unemployment, By Lisa Schlein, August 12, 2010, Deutsche Welle: “According to a United Nations report released on Thursday, labor market trends for young people have taken a drastic turn for the worse since 2007, when global youth unemployment remained fairly stagnant. For the 10 years prior to the economic crisis, the report noted the number of unemployed youth around the world had increased by an average of 200,000 per year. In 2009, however, youth unemployment increased by a staggering 6.7 million. Sara Elder, an economist with the International Labor Organization (ILO) and co-author of the report, says youth unemployment is most severe in the developed economies and non-EU, central and southeastern Europe…”
  • Global youth unemployment reaches new high, By Matthew Saltmarsh, August 11, 2010, New York Times: “Youth unemployment across the world has climbed to a new high and is likely to climb further this year, a United Nations agency said Thursday, while warning of a ‘lost generation’ as more young people give up the search for work. The agency, the International Labor Organization, said in a report that of some 620 million young people ages 15 to 24 in the work force, about 81 million were unemployed at the end of 2009 – the highest level in two decades of record-keeping by the organization, which is based in Geneva. The youth unemployment rate increased to 13 percent in 2009 from 11.9 percent in the last assessment in 2007…”