Development Contrasts: Youth Unemployment

​In this development contrasts video we look at countries with some of the highest recorded youth unemployment rates. As we will see, staggeringly high rates of youth unemployment and economic inactivity can happen in both emerging and advanced countries.

South Africa has the world’s highest recorded youth unemployment rate. On some estimates, if you added discouraged youth the unemployment rate jumps to over 70%. Note the exceptionally low labour market participation rate in Palestine, one of the lowest in the world – less than half of the population of working age are active in their labour market.

Very high rates of youth unemployment have afflicted southern European countries such as Greece, Spain and Italy - leading in all three cases to a brain drain effect as young people move to a new country in search of work and income.

Even in China, the UK and India when official unemployment rates are low, the youth unemployment rate remains above ten per cent. Youth unemployment is a structural economic problem that holds back economic growth and development.