South Africa Tops with Highest Number of Unemployed Youth

South Africa leads with the highest number of unemployed youths globally at 52.8 percent. South Africa’s high youth unemployment rate is one of the greatest issues facing the nation’s economic prospects.

Greece comes in second as a country with the highest number of unemployed youths, a figure that stands at 36.8 percent with Spain following closely at 34.9 percent.

Young people were estimated to account for over 35 percent of the unemployed population worldwide in 2017. While the global youth unemployment rate stabilized at 13.0 percent in 2016 and it was expected to rise slightly to 13.1 percent in 2018.

As of 2017, 39 percent of young workers in the emerging and developing world, an approximate of 160.8 million youth were living in moderate or extreme poverty, i.e. on less than $3.10 a day.

More than two in every five young people in today’s workforce are unemployed or are working but poor, a striking reality that is impacting society across the world.

For many of them, their present and future lie in the informal economy. Globally, three out of four employed young women and men are in informal employment, compared to three in five adults. In developing countries, this ratio is as high as 19 out of 20 for young women and men.

The youth employment challenge is therefore not just about job creation, but also – even more so – about the quality of work and decent jobs for youth.

The youth unemployment crisis, specifically in the context of the global employment situation is, along with climate change, the great challenge of our time.

As debates broaden about the future of work in the context of the current industrial revolution, what seems clear is that the chronic unemployment and job instability affecting young people, in addition to their distrust of politics, hold devastating consequences for society as a whole.

Every year around the world, 40 million young people (400 million in a decade) join a labor market that is not growing enough. Around 70 million out of the 200 million people out of work are young and if the economy does not prove capable of finding a solution, we are going to find ourselves with a lost generation bringing with it a loss of human capital, social exclusion, and dislocation.

The quality of the jobs available also poses a great challenge. The crisis has accelerated the replacement of quality jobs with those that are not. At the same time, social protection policies have been weakened and there has been a fracturing of the social contract.

If nothing is done to tackle global youth unemployment, the consequences will be significant; all that remains to be seen is in what sense. Economic, social and employment policies need to be geared towards resolving this problem, given that the youth employment crisis is behind all kinds of phenomena.

Here is a list of Countries with the Highest number of Unemployed youth across the world:

1. South Africa: 52.8%
2. Greece: 34.9%
3. Spain: 34.9%
4. Nigeria: 33.1%
5. Italy: 32.5%
6. Iran: 32.5%
7. Morocco: 27.5%
8. Serbia: 27.5%
9. Algeria: 26.4%
10. Croatia: 23%
11. Albania: 22.6%
12. Sri Lanka: 22.5%
13. France: 21.5%
14. Portugal: 21.4%
15. Turkey: 20.8%
16. Cyprus: 19%
17. Belgium: 18.9%