…as young people face a harder road to decent work -ILO

GENEVA (ILO News) – Global youth unemployment is rising as stagnant economic growth and weak job creation increase barriers to job entry for young people and push more of them outside employment, education or training, according to a new report from the International Labour Organization (ILO).

The Global Employment Trends for Youth 2026: Back to the future report shows that the global youth unemployment rate rose to 12.4 per cent in 2025, equivalent to 67 million unemployed people aged 15 to 24 years. At the same time, the share of young people not in employment, education or training (NEET) increased slightly to 20 per cent, affecting more than 257 million people. Some of the sharpest rises in youth unemployment have been in higher-income economies, frustrating the aspirations of millions of young people at the start of their working lives.