Why investing in the future should mean investing in youth

Global unemployment among young people aged 16 to 24 is currently 13%, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO), marking the lowest recorded rate in over 15 years. This decline in youth unemployment is expected to continue into 2025, providing a reason for optimism.

This recovery has not been experienced uniformly across the globe, however. Regions such as East Asia, Southeast Asia, the Pacific, and the Arab States and North Africa continue to face critically high – and rising – levels of youth unemployment.

It is essential to maintain focus on this issue. By 2030, young people aged 15 to 24 will comprise 20% of the world’s population. It will require immense and coordinated efforts to ensure they can secure decent work that fosters better futures, reduces anxiety around job security, promotes gender equality and contributes to inclusion and peace.

Currently, 20% of the world’s young people are not engaged in employment, education or training, according to the ILO, with young women forming two-thirds of this group. If the present rate of change persists, gender parity in the youth employment-to-population ratio may not be achieved until well into the next century.

We also know that obtaining decent and secure employment remains difficult more generally. Many young workers lack social protection and are often trapped in temporary jobs, hindering their ability to thrive as independent adults. In low-income countries, only one in four young workers are likely to have a regular, secure job, compared to three out of four in high-income countries.

Decent work is crucial for securing a better future for young individuals, and we must create opportunities for advancement. But how can we achieve this?

While educational attainment among young people is improving, the ILO says many economies still struggle to generate high-skilled jobs at a rate sufficient to meet the growing number of tertiary graduates. It has also seen a noticeable decline in job quality relative to tertiary education, particularly in high-income countries.

Youth-targeted active labour market programmes can help. Interventions focused on skills training, entrepreneurship and soft skills can also enhance outcomes for youth. Further, corporate-led programmes and interventions have shown that major employers can also improve the economic outlook for young people today – and for future generations.

A decade ago, Europe was experiencing a slow recovery from the 2008 financial crisis. The youth unemployment rate of people aged 15-24 years old in the euro area was 23% in mid-2014. So, in 2013, Nestlé committed to hiring 10,000 young people and 10,000 trainees or apprentices below the age of 30 through its Nestlé needs YOUth programme. By the end of the year, the company had helped nearly 12,000 young people find work or apprenticeship opportunities.

Nestlé launched the Alliance for YOUth that same year to mobilize other companies to help tackle youth unemployment in Europe, and to attract and retain the best talent. By the end of 2014, 200 companies across Europe had pledged to create more than 100,000 opportunities for young people in collaboration with policymakers and the education sector.

This became the first pan-European private sector movement to prepare young people for the professional world, improving their chances of getting a job in a challenging market. The Alliance set up “dual-learning” schemes with schools and universities that combined formal education with apprenticeships and on-the-job training to help match skills with jobs.

In 2019, the Alliance went global with the launch of the Global Alliance for YOUth at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland. The Global Alliance committed to offering young people their first job experiences, as well as enhancing their hard and soft skills and supporting young entrepreneurs around the world.

One year later COVID-19 hit. The pandemic had a dramatic impact on employment rates. In 2020, youth employment dropped by 8.7% versus 3.7% for adults, according to the ILO. The effects were even worse in lower income countries. The severe disruption lockdowns had on learning and work during this time caused a deterioration in young people’s wellbeing.

Amid this crisis, in October 2020, Nestlé and the Global Alliance for YOUth organized an online event with the European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights. They announced they would create 300,000 first jobs, apprenticeships and traineeships across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

Also in 2020, Nestlé Chile hosted the first virtual Pacific Alliance Youth Summit, which focused on tackling the social and economic integration of young people impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. And in 2021, the Alliance maintained its focus on building resilience and improving the mental health of youth through webinars featuring speakers from its corporate members and partners.

Since then, the Alliance has partnered with tech companies HCLTech and Microsoft, and advertising and public relations firm Publicis to introduce Code4YOUth. Participants in this hackathon meet virtually and work on solutions that give people more access to the internet and digital devices. And just this year, the Global Alliance for YOUth partnered with consultancy Accenture and the Global Shapers Community (a World Economic Forum network of inspiring young people under 30) on an innovation prize to accelerate breakthrough ideas that enhance wellbeing and prosperity.

The Global Alliance for YOUth's 25 corporate members have so far created more than 40 million professional development opportunities for 18 to 30 year-olds all over the world. Even as the labour market outlook for the world's young people improves, we must continue to create pathways to decent work for our young population.