Young And Jobless: The Effects Of Economic Recession On The Youth

Economic recession not only affects those who belong in the working class or the generation involved in labor. Children and the youth are getting affected by economic recession and poverty so much, that these children sometimes never acts their age or sometimes so insecure of their surroundings.

According to the United Nations World Youth report, youth (with ages 18- 24 years old) is 18 percent of the world population. Meanwhile, the youth is also 25 percent of working age population. Last 2007, there were more than 1.2 billion people in the world who belonged to this age group.

Youth are two to three times more likely than adults to be unemployed. The situation is particularly critical for young women, who suffer higher rates of unemployment than young men in the majority of economies. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), youth in both industrialized and developing countries are more likely to be working long hours, on short-term contracts, low pay and with little or no social protection at all.

Youth who enter the workforce with limited prospects, like underdeveloped and inadequate education, have the high probability of facing unemployment, whether it is short or long term, intermittent spells of unemployment and low- wage jobs.

There are more than1 billion youth people aged between15 to 24 are unemployed. A large percentage (85 percent) would be from developing countries. There are 160 million people unemployed globally right now, according to ILO, and nearly 40 percent of this number comes from the youth sector.

Most of the employed youth would be working with short term employment. The casualisation or contractualisation of the youth sector or making the youth work shorter terms affects the benefits or social protection they get from employers. This explains why many of the employed youth are working without or little protection.

Most of the world’s youth are working in the informal economy. In Latin America, almost all newly created jobs employing youth are in the informal economy. While in Africa, 93 percent of all new jobs are also informal. Workers in informal sectors usually work long hours, low pay, with poor working conditions. They don’t have access to social protection or benefits and any freedom for associations, organizations or unions and collective bargaining.

There are also recession effects on the college students. During recessions, the economic out put is decreasing. What the government do is that they reduce taxes, while increasing the government safety net on spending. Because of this, education budgets were harder to make.

These government safety net on spending, constraints the daily education of the students. Course offerings, programs, and student activities may suffer budget cuts as programs compete for less education funds. Funding opportunities for student loans, scholarships, school employment, and aid may also weaken. During budget cuts, less education budget will lead to higher tuition fees to finance the missing funds. This case is particularly true for state subsidized institutions and public schools.

Due to poverty and difficult times, there are numbers showing that the youth are forced to enter low-paid and high risk jobs with little social protection. Faced with poverty and better job opportunities, our youth are forced to gamble their health and physical strength.

There can be numerous ways for an economic recession to deeply cut on our youth. There is a large number of young people currently unemployed, and unemployment greatly affects even the attitude of our youth. Unemployment can to marginalization, exclusion, frustration and even low-esteem.

It is important to save our youth from the impeding crises. Establishing youth employment policies and sound economic policies are great ways to start it.