Young people’s integration into the labour market, their education and skills development are all crucial to the realization of a prosperous, sustainable and equitable socio-economic environment worldwide.
Youth – following the United Nations’ definition as those aged between 15 and 24 years old – represent an important resource for society and account for over 18 per cent of the world’s population as well as more than 15 per cent of the world’s labour force. Accordingly, addressing labour market and social challenges faced by youth is imperative, not only for the well-being of our young people but also to ensure sustainable and inclusive growth and improved social cohesion worldwide.
The difficulties faced by youth were brought to the fore with the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008, which had a disproportionate impact on young people, especially across much of the developed world. The enduring effects of the crisis and the ever-weakening economic outlook continue to weigh on the prospects of young people. In 2016, youth are estimated to account for over 35 per cent of the unemployed population globally, while more than one-third of youth in the emerging and developing world live in extreme or moderate poverty despite having a job, underscoring the high incidence of poor-quality jobs among young employed people.
Understanding how the uncertain economic outlook is affecting young people’s labour market and social outcomes is central to being able to shape institutional and policy responses, especially following the adoption of Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This report tries to shed light on the current and future challenges faced by young people throughout the world. In particular, section 1 looks at recent developments and the outlook for a number of labour market indicators, including youth unemployment, working poverty and employment quality. Section 2 discusses the barriers and inequalities in opportunities affecting youth labour market prospects, notably the gaps between young men and women. 
Finally, section 3 provides some concluding remarks.

Watch the report in short:
The authors of the report, Steven Tobin and Stefan Kuehn explain how young people are doing in the world of work and what their prospects are for the future.

Brief Summary: Global youth unemployment is on the rise again