Virus: ILO concerned about impact of epidemic on youth unemployment

The exceptional measures taken by governments to stem the new coronavirus should have particularly negative consequences on the access of young people to the job market, worried the ILO on Monday.

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Introducing the report on global employment trends for young people at the International Labor Organization (ILO), the director of the organization's employment policies department, Sangheon Lee, explained these measures, which have a impact on consumption and production - were likely to affect young people more strongly because young people are generally more affected by economic crises.

Young people are three times more likely to be unemployed

The number of new coronavirus cases worldwide has exceeded 110,000 in 100 countries and territories. Appeared in late December in China, it disrupts daily and economic life in a growing number of countries, some of which have taken exceptional containment measures. Sangheon Lee explained that young people tend to work in more temporary, flexible and unstable jobs, often in the service sector, which has been hit hard by a sharp drop in consumer demand since the start of the epidemic .

" If the slowdown in consumption linked to Covid-19 continues in the months to come, we can expect serious consequences for young people in terms of job opportunities ," he said. According to the ILO, the unemployment rate of young people (15-24 years old) worldwide should increase slightly in 2020 and 2021. It reached 13.6% in 2019, with considerable variations by region, ranging from nearly 9% in North America and sub-Saharan Africa to more than 30% in North Africa.

Overall, young people are three times more likely to be unemployed than adults (+25 years), according to the ILO. Of the 429 million employed youth, 13% are in extreme poverty, living on less than $ 1.90 a day, while 17% live in moderate poverty, earning less than 3, 20 USD per day. The ILO also indicates that one fifth of the 15-24 year olds in the world are not in school and live without employment or training, a phenomenon which is not weakening and which affects the great majority of young women.