A UN report on unemployment says the youth in different parts of the world are faced with worsening unemployment.

According to an annual Global Employment Trends report released by the UN on Monday, the International Labour Organization (ILO) says  that despite the positive trend of falling unemployment over the past two years, the number of unemployed worldwide rose by 4.2 million in 2012 with disappointing expectations of a further increase in 2013.

“An uncertain economic outlook, and the inadequacy of policy to counter this, has weakened aggregate demand, holding back investment and hiring,” Guy Ryder, the ILO Director-General, announced in a news release accompanying the report.

“This has prolonged the labour market slump in many countries, lowering job creation and increasing unemployment duration even in some countries that previously had low unemployment and dynamic labour markets,” he added.

According to the ILO, some 35 per cent of unemployed youth in advanced economies have been out of a job for six months or longer – an absence which directly impacts their long-term career prospects as their skills deteriorate. Others, meanwhile, get discouraged and leave the labour market altogether.

With almost 74 million people in the 15 to 24 age group unemployed around the world, translating into a 12.4 per cent unemployment rate for this subset, job prospects for the world’s younger workers are looking increasingly bleak, says the report.

By UP