Concerns as decent jobs remain elusive in emerging economies

The global labour market outlook for young people has improved in the last four years, and the upward trend is expected to continue till 2026, according to a new International Labour Organisation (ILO) Global Employment Trends (GET) for Youth 2024 report. However, too many young people across the globe are not in employment, education or training (NEET) even as opportunities to access decent jobs remain limited in emerging and developing economies, GLORIA NWAFOR writes.

As the world commemorated International Youth Day (IYD), yesterday, many young people in certain regions, including Nigeria, are not seeing the benefits of economic recovery.

The lack of productive and decent jobs remains the largest labour market challenge for young people in sub-Saharan Africa. At 21.9 per cent in 2023, the youth NEET (Not in Employment, Education or Training) rate in sub-Saharan Africa exceeded the global rate (at 20.4 per cent), making the region one of only three global regions judged to be “off track” in its Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) commitment (under target 8.6) to lower numbers of young NEETs.

Globally, more than half of young workers are in informal employment. Only in high upper-middle-income economies are the majority of young workers today in a regular and secure job. Three in four young workers in low-income countries will get only a self-employed or temporary paid job.

According to a new International Labour Organisation (ILO), the Global Employment Trends (GET) for Youth 2024 report finds high shares of several youths NEET, regional and gender gaps, and growing youth anxiety about work, despite encouraging global youth unemployment trends.

It stated that the number of youth NEET was a cause for concern despite the falling jobless rate globally.

The report cautioned that the continuing high NEET rates and insufficient growth of decent jobs are causing growing anxiety among today’s youth, who are also the most educated youth cohort ever.

The 2023 youth unemployment rate, at 13 per cent, is equivalent to 64.9 million people, representing a 15-year low and a fall from the pre-pandemic rate of 13.8 per cent in 2019.

According to the report, it is expected to fall further to 12.8 per cent this year and next, stating that one in five young people, or 20.4 per cent, globally were NEET in 2023, with two out of every three NEETs being female.

In his remark on the report, ILO Director-General Gilbert Houngbo said: “None of us can look forward to a stable future when millions of young people around the world do not have decent work and, as a result, are feeling insecure and unable to build a better life for themselves and their families. Peaceful societies rely on three core ingredients: stability, inclusion, social justice and decent work for the youth is at the heart of all three.”

While calling for greater attention on strengthening the foundations of decent work as a pathway to countering young people’s anxieties about the world of work and reinforcing their hope for a brighter future, he said without equal opportunities for education and decent jobs, millions of young people were missing out on their chances for a better future.

Houngbo called for increased and more effective investment, including boosting job creation with a specific target on jobs for young women, strengthening the institutions that support young people through their labour market transitions including young NEETs, integrating employment and social protection for youth, and tackling global inequalities through improved international cooperation, public-private partnerships and financing for development.

To help ease youth anxieties, he said institutions would need to guide young people through the complexities of the school-to-work and youth-to-adulthood transitions and also helping young people to keep their hopes alive must become a shared mission involving all segments of society.

Noting that demographic pressures consume the continent, he said between 2023 and 2050, the cumulative growth in the youth labour force is estimated at 72.6 million (with an additional 3.3 million young labour market entrants in North Africa).

He lamented that the creation of decent jobs for so many young labour market entrants in the coming two decades was a matter of global concern to African countries.

In Nigeria, stakeholders believe that because the government has not invested massively in youths and included them in the socio-economic space, the economy will continue to stifle growth.

They argued that with the digital platforms and skills that would have created more employment for the teeming youths, the government was yet to create the enabling facilities around them to get the youths to participate massively in economic development.

A public affairs analyst, Jide Ojo, said despite all prospective ministries on youths, the proper planning to harness the potential of youth was lacking.

According to him, the National Youth Policy has been lying fallow without implementation, even as the country battles with less than 10 per cent youth participation in elective positions, despite age reduction qualifications for political and elected offices by former President Muhammadu Buhari.

He maintained that reducing the age qualifications alone has not done the magic because of the exponential increase in the cost of running elections in Nigeria .
Noting that there is a need to rethink youth support initiatives by leaders, Ojo said there is no motivation for youths who want to be self-employed.

According to him, the opportunities are limited due to access to credit, the high cost of doing business in Nigeria, and the epileptic power supply that has led to a high mortality rate of companies in the country.

He called on the sub-nationals to key in and support the Federal Government’s initiative to have the youth population harnessed for positive impact.

The analyst said the fact that many youths do not have access to opportunities has led many into crime and criminality, denying them the opportunity to contribute to the national economy.

Highlighting all the Federal Government’s youth initiatives and youth-oriented ministries in the country, he said they are not working in synergy, urging them to work in sync and harmonise their initiatives to increase the number of those who are benefiting so that they can rob on more positively on other Nigerian youths.

Director-General of the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde, urged the government to give more attention to the challenges hindering the youths from maximising their potential, stating that the challenges were systematic and could be addressed in the long, medium and short term.

Noting that digital skills are evolving and to keep pace, he said the youths and government must continue to create pathways for upskilling.

He called for more investment in the digital economy due to the huge population of youths in the country.

Assistant General of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Chris Onyeka, said the number of youths not included in the socio-economic space was increasing, leading to a high level of unemployment.
He said Nigeria, which currently finds itself in such a situation, meant that the energies of the youths are not properly harnessed for economic development and would ultimately result in a stifled economy.

“When you exclude people from participating in socio-economy, it means they will channel their energies in other ways which may be detrimental to the society, which may automatically lead to an increase in social vices. That alone creates a largely dysfunctional society in the process because that society has neglected the youth population. The youths are the engine room and creative force of the society, and any society that does not make deliberate measures to harness its youths’ potential has planned to fail, and it is problematic,” he said.

Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), Dr Muda Yusuf, said there is a need to review the education curriculum to ensure the skills impacted are what the country needs for development.

According to him, what the country needs now is skills-based education.

He faulted the sub-nationals for not doing well enough to enhance the quality of youths to be able to contribute their quota to national development.

Noting that the youths are supposed to be national assets and human capital for the country, he said the government’s role in developing them was quite large.

He urged that the government should do enough to invest in youths for sustainable development.