According to the “Global Employment Trends for Youth 2015”, the youth jobless rate has fallen slightly but remains at 13 per cent, well above the pre-crisis level of 11.7 per cent. As of 2014, the number of young adults unemployed stood at 73.3 million. The outlook for 2015 is a slight increase to 13.1 per cent.

The report, released on 8 October, reinforces the United Nations’ (UN) new Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8: to promote decent work for all, author Sara Elder tells Equal Times in a telephone interview from ILO headquarters in Geneva.

Training, tax breaks, subsidies, public investment and the drive for quality jobs are all part of the solution, she says.

Elder argues that the annual ILO report has served as an advocacy tool to secure SDG 8. “The findings of the report are linked to the continuing problems we have in developing economies: working poverty. One in three who work still live below the 2 US$-a-day line. It shows you that despite all the attention and investment, donors are throwing money at the topic but still are not making the difference that they need to be making.”

Strategies that work, others that don’t

The report says youth employment strategies “should articulate the mix and interaction of macroeconomic policies, labour and employment policies and other interventions specifically targeting young people, particularly the most disadvantaged.”

Some effective actions in attacking the problem include donor countries pumping more money in infrastructure in the developing world to create more jobs, as the European Investment Bank is doing, Elder says.

And in Europe, the European Union’s (EU) so-called Youth Guarantee has been successful in targeting youth who are hardest to reach, to help them make the transition from school to work.

“Portugal has a pro-active approach to youth who have given up, by using social media, bulletins in metros, young people talking to young people,” Elder says.

“In Italy, it’s slower, but the government there is aware of the problem and know they have to step up.”

Elder acknowledges the Youth Guarantee “is not going to create new jobs, but what it could do is make sure that young people aren’t falling out completely, to keep them on radar through training or a short-term job. While we allow economic growth to take its own course, like Ireland and Spain.”

She urges more public-private partnerships to close the skills gap. “You do have a tendency of enterprises to put all of the blame on the educational system without engaging with the system to work together to get the calibre of young people they’re looking for.”

Elder notes where that works best “is where you have a strong apprenticeship system as in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, but that can be a model for other countries.”

The report also calls for better working conditions and social protections. It says linking investment in infrastructure with labour market policies “would boost both quantity and quality of jobs for youth.”

She rejects criticism that wage and work demands by trade unions make it harder for businesses to hire youth.

“That’s false. Working with trade unions to get better quality jobs leads to employment gains. Economic growth requires investment in quality jobs. Otherwise you’re throwing your money away on aid packages.”