Labor Market Uncertainties for Youth and Young Adults: An International Perspective

• Date: 01 March 2020
• Published date: 01 March 2020
• Author: Yi Yang,Wei-Jun Jean Yeung
• DOI: 10.1177/0002716220913487

ANNALS, AAPSS, 688, March 2020 7

DOI: 10.1177/0002716220913487

Labor Market

Uncertainties

for Youth and

Young Adults:

An

International

Perspective

By

WEI-JUN JEAN YEUNG

and

YI YANG

913487ANN The Annals of The American AcademyLabor Market Uncertainties for Young People

research-article2020

A crisis for youth labor market conditions has been

building globally for more than two decades, reflected in

the persistently high rates of youth unemployment

around the world, which is about three times as high as

that for adults. About one in five young people are not in

education, employment, or training, and a large share of

young adults are working in the informal economy or in

precarious conditions. This volume includes a collection

of thirteen articles that examine the causes, patterns, and

consequences of labor market uncertainties for youth

and young adults in Europe, Latin/South America, the

United States, and Asia, as well as a concluding article.

They reveal vast inequalities among young people, with

those having the least education and lowest skills,

females, those with low family socioeconomic status

(SES), ethnic minorities, and migrants being the most

vulnerable. In this introduction, we describe the global

trends and regional variation in labor market conditions

for young people, explicate the importance of integrating

young people into labor markets, and summarize the

findings and policy implications of these articles.

Keywords: youth unemployment; transition to adult-

hood; school-to-work transition; NEET;

precarious work; international comparison

Around one fifth of the world’s young people are

not in employment, education or training. Despite

economic recovery, unemployment remains high,

and youth are more likely to be unemployed than

adults around the world. Low productivity levels,

informality and working poverty remain major

challenges, and as populations age, today’s young

workforce will have to increasingly support

elderly persons. These global conditions require

concerted efforts to ensure that young women

and men have access to decent jobs. (International

Labour Organization 2017, 11)

A

crisis for youth labor market conditions has

been building globally for more than two

decades as reflected in the persistently high

rates of youth unemployment. The International

Labour Organization (ILO) reported that the

world youth (ages 15–24) unemployment rate

Correspondence: socywj@nus.edu.sg