ILO: Global youth unemployment rises 12.4% in 2025 with 67 million young people unemployed world wide

Youth unemployment is on the rise across the world, a new report by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has said, attributing this to slowing global economic growth, diminished job creation, geopolitical tensions and rapid technological change.   The global unemployment rate of young people aged 15 to 24 edged up to 12.4% in 2025, equalling 67 million unemployed young people worldwide, said the ILO’s Global Employment Trends for Youth 2026. The global youth unemployment rate had fallen to its lowest level in over two decades in 2023.   The global share of young people not in employment, education or training (NEET) is also again on the rise, reaching 20% in 2025 from 19.7% in 2023. “This translated into an increase of 9 million more young people in NEET status since 2023, bringing the total to 257 million in 2025,” said the report, adding that with many more young people implicated and with youth disengagement harder to redress,1 the increasing trend in the youth NEET rate is especially worrisome.   The report comes at a time when several countries are struggling with youth unemployment and a wave of Gen Z protests for better education and jobs has swept several countries, including India.

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 In fact, the report pointed out that while economic growth has slowed, the world is not now in an obvious period of economic crisis and called upon governments to follow a more human-centric approach to AI, invest in skills, strengthen lifelong learning and modernise employment services.   “…young people, with their voices amplified in the media, are increasingly expressing fear that their jobs will be replaced by technology and that their chances at job and income stability will be blocked by unprecedented technological (and other future of work) disruptions,” it noted.   The ILO also highlighted this and noted that, unlike previous editions of the report, the worsening results on job entry for young people have been almost universal over the past couple of years. The youth unemployment rate rose between 2023 and 2025 in 8 of the 11 subregions, as well as in high-income, lower-middle-income and low-income countries, it said, adding that the largest increases were in Northern Africa, Northern America and Northern, Southern and Western Europe.

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It also noted that job creation is not keeping pace with the growth in the youth population in multiple regions. This means the youth cohorts of these subregions increased faster than overall job creation, raising concerns about the capacity of economies to generate sufficient opportunities for young people. “The ratio of the youth-to adult unemployment rates has increased in Eastern Asia, Northern Africa, Northern America, Northern, Southern and Western Europe and Southern Asia,” it said.   The ILO report further noted that artificial intelligence (AI)-led disruptions have “hollowed out” several middle-skilled occupations which are mainly clerical and administrative occupations, and could translate to even higher levels of youth unemployment. These include clerical support work; service and sales work; skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery work; craft and related trades work; and plant and machine operators and assemblers.   The report estimated that 6.1% of jobs currently held by young people aged 15 to 29 fall in the categories of those most exposed to AI and, thus, most at risk of some level of AI-task (or job) replacement. “If only 10% of the jobs exposed to AI were to disappear in full, it would translate into 5.6 million employed youth – largely in high-income countries – facing unemployment, changing jobs or exiting the labour force,” it warned.   Similarly, the outlook of jobs for youth in operational technical occupations is also somewhat problematic in trades in the construction, manufacturing and food preparation sectors that tend to follow technical vocational education and training. “The shrinking of opportunities for job entry in the manufacturing sector could be especially disruptive in developing economies struggling to grow their capacity to connect to global manufacturing supply chains as a route to economic development,” it said.