THE GLOBAL YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT CRISIS

Stefan Kapferer

Deputy Secretary General OECD

October 6th 2015

Youth unemployment reached very high levels in some OECD countries and has not fully recovered

Youth (15-24) unemployment rate, December 2007a- January 2015b

Norway

Japan

Austria

Mexico

Switzerla

nd

German

yKore

a

Netherl

ands

Austral

ia

Denmark Isr

ael

Canad

aIce

landOECD G7

New Zea

land

Luxem

bourg

United S

tates

Czech R

epub

lic

Finland

United K

ingdo

m

Europe

an Unio

n

Belgium Chile

Sloven

iaTurk

ey

Euro Area

FrancePola

nd

Sweden

Hunga

ryIre

land

Slovak

Repub

lic

Portug

al

Estonia Ita

lySpa

in

Greece

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

December 2007 Peak January 2015%

Note: Countries shown in ascending order of the unemployment rates at their peak.a) Q2 2007 for Switzerland and Q4 2007 for Israel and New Zealand.b) November 2014 for Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom, December 2014 for Chile, Estonia, Hungary, Norway and Slovenia, February 2015 for Canada and the

United States, and Q4 2014 for New Zealand and Switzerland.Source: OECD calculations based on the OECD Short-Term Labour Market Statistics (database), http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/data-00046-en.

Unemployment is only part of the problem - NEET rates have increased from 2007 to 2013

… and over half of all NEETs are not looking for a job NEET Rate 2013 Change in NEET Rate 2007-2013

• 80% of NEETs do not have higher education and 40% only have lower secondary education

• Two thirds of NEETs have low/very low cognitive skills

• 2 times as likely to be lone parent• More likely to have parents with lower educational

attainment• NEET status is not temporary – 1 in 4 of youth

with NEET spell > 1 year

What they think (compared to non-NEET youth)• 30% less likely to trust other people

• twice as likely to show no interest at all in politics

• less likely to value work (depending on country)

Portrait of a NEET

Early interventions to prevent school drop-outs Innovative school programmes After-school support & activities High quality apprenticeships & Vocational Educational Training

(VET) Mentoring & early career guidance

Youth Guarantees for those out of school Allows identifying human capital deficits and specific interventions Helps prevent youth inactivity and permanent scarring Ensures that youth are work-ready when job creation resumes Challenge when unemployment is high; can be difficult to scale up

Strategies

Advantages:

• Will help align skill needs with skills taught• Facilitates recruitment as employers and potential

employees can get to know each other• Can be attractive to students who are at risk of dropping

out of school or not progressing on to 3rd level education• Allow the combining of work & study – students can gain

labour market experience

Recipe for success:• Ensure access to high quality programmes• Need to be attractive to students and employers

Apprenticeships & VET

• Focus mainly on the difficult groups which may vary across countries.

1. Identify with more precision the risk factors, needs and barriers to training and labour market pathways for these groups

2. Map existing policies: income-support but also housing, health, education, counselling/mentoring, mobility and special training / work experience programmes

3. Evaluate how these policies help reduce high-school drop out rates and improve successful participation in vocational training and apprenticeship programmes

• Latvia completed.• Australia, Norway, Sweden, Japan ongoing• More countries expected in 2016

New country reviews INVESTING IN YOUTH