YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT AT ALL TIME HIGH ,NEW ILO REPORT SAYS HALF THE WORLD’S JOBLESS ARE UNDER 24GENEVA (ILO News) – Youth unemployment has skyrocketed worldwide over the past decade to some 88 million, according to a new study by the International Labour Office (ILO), reaching an all time high with young people aged 15 to 24 now representing nearly half the world’s jobless. “Global Employment Trends for Youth 2004,” a new analysis prepared by the ILO’s Employment Strategy Department, found that while youth represent 25 per cent of the working age population between the ages of 15 and 64, they made up as much as 47 per cent of the total 186 million people out of work worldwide in 2003. But the problem goes far beyond the large number of young unemployed people: the report says that young people represent some 130 million of the world’s 550 million working poor who work but are unable to lift themselves and their families above the equivalent of US$ 1 per day poverty line. These young people struggle to survive, often performing work under unsatisfactory conditions in the informal economy.Tackling youth unemployment and the consequent vulnerabilities and feelings of exclusion would be a significant contribution to the global economy. According to the report, halving the world youth unemployment rate would add at least US$ 2.2 trillion to global GDP, equal to around 4 per cent of the 2003 global GDP value. Furthermore, as the report points out, people who get a good start to working life are less likely to experience prolongued unemployment later.“We are wasting an important part of the energy and talent of the most educated youth generation the world has ever had,” says ILO Director-General Juan Somavia. “Enlarging the chances of young people to find and keep decent work is absolutely critical to achieving the UN Millenium Development Goals.”Further information can be found at www.ilo.org or the ILO-Moscow site http://www.ilo.ru