The International Labour Organization reported on August 11 that global youth unemployment climbed to 12.4% in 2025, reversing a post-pandemic recovery that had brought the rate to a two-decade low just two years earlier. The findings, published in the ILO’s Global Employment Trends for Youth 2026 report, show 67 million people aged 15 to 24 without work worldwide, with the sharpest deterioration concentrated in higher-income economies and the report flagging artificial intelligence as an emerging pressure on the entry-level positions that traditionally serve as pathways into stable careers.
Key Takeaways
- The global youth unemployment rate rose to 12.4% in 2025, up from a two-decade low in 2023, leaving 67 million people aged 15 to 24 without work.
- The share of young people not in employment, education, or training (NEET) increased to 20%, affecting 257 million people globally, an increase of 9 million since 2023.
- Youth unemployment worsened or stayed flat in 8 of 11 global subregions, with 105 countries recording increases and only 58 reporting declines.
- North America saw one of the sharpest deteriorations, with youth unemployment rising from 8.3% to 9.8% between 2023 and 2025.
- The ILO estimates 6.1% of jobs held by workers aged 15 to 29 are in occupations with high exposure to AI-driven displacement, primarily clerical and administrative roles.
- The Arab States and North Africa continue to record the highest regional youth unemployment rates at 26.2% and 22.6%, respectively.
A Post-Pandemic Recovery That Stalled
The trajectory of global youth unemployment over the past five years follows a pattern that the ILO’s report frames as a false recovery. After the COVID-19 pandemic drove youth joblessness to crisis levels, a rebound brought the global rate to its lowest point in 20 years by 2023. That improvement now appears to have been temporary rather than structural.
Between 2023 and 2025, youth unemployment rates increased across most of the world. Of the 11 global subregions tracked by the International Labour Organization, eight saw rates worsen or stagnate. At a country level, 105 nations recorded rising youth unemployment during that window, compared to 58 where conditions improved. The ILO attributes the reversal to a combination of slowing economic growth, weak job creation, geopolitical tensions, and rapid technological change converging on the demographic group with the least labor market leverage.
Young people are now 2.5 times more likely to be unemployed than the general working-age population, whose overall unemployment rate held steady at 4.9% in 2025. That gap underscores a structural problem: the global labor market is not contracting broadly, but the entry points that connect young people to it are narrowing.
Higher-Income Economies Are Not Immune
One of the report’s more striking findings is that higher-income economies have experienced some of the sharpest deterioration. North America saw youth unemployment jump from 8.3% in 2023 to 9.8% in 2025, a swing that affected millions of young workers in economies that had appeared to recover quickly from the pandemic. In Northern, Southern, and Western Europe, the combined youth unemployment rate remained at 15% in 2025, with 20 of 29 countries in the subregion reporting weaker job prospects for young people.
These are not economies with collapsing labor markets. Adult employment in many of these countries has remained stable or improved. The divergence suggests that something specific to entry-level hiring is changing. The ILO’s report identifies the decline of middle-skilled occupations as a central factor. Jobs in clerical and administrative work, service and sales roles, manufacturing, and some technical occupations have historically functioned as the on-ramp for young workers entering the labor force. Those categories are shrinking, squeezed by automation, corporate restructuring, and in some cases, AI adoption.
The AI Factor Remains Uncertain but Measurable
The report addresses artificial intelligence with a degree of caution that reflects the current state of evidence. The ILO estimates that 6.1% of jobs held by people aged 15 to 29 are in occupations with high exposure to AI-related changes. That figure translates primarily into clerical and administrative roles, the same category of middle-skilled work that has already been declining in availability for young workers.
The overlap is significant: the occupations most vulnerable to AI displacement are the same ones that have traditionally served as the first rung on the employment ladder. If AI accelerates the disappearance of these roles, young people who lack specialized skills or higher education credentials face a labor market with fewer viable entry points.
Sukti Dasgupta, ILO Director of the Employment, Skills and Sustainable Enterprises Department, acknowledged the uncertainty while cautioning against dismissing the threat. The ILO’s position is that the direct impact of AI on jobs remains unclear, but that underestimating the risks would be a mistake. The report recommends increased investment in skills development, lifelong learning, and social protection systems designed to help young workers adapt to changing labor market conditions.
At the same time, demand for workers in knowledge-based technical fields, including science, health, and engineering, continues to grow. The challenge is that these sectors require higher levels of education and specialized training, creating a widening gap between the jobs that are disappearing and the jobs that are emerging.
Developing Economies Face a Different Problem With the Same Outcome
In lower-income countries, the headline unemployment rate often understates the problem. Young people in these economies frequently cannot afford prolonged unemployment. They enter the labor force out of necessity, but the work available to them is overwhelmingly informal, insecure, and unprotected.
The ILO’s Global Employment Trends for Youth 2026 report found that nearly nine in ten young workers aged 15 to 29 in low- and lower-middle-income countries are employed informally, without meaningful access to labor protections or social security. Sub-Saharan Africa faces particularly acute demographic pressure, with a rapidly growing youth population entering a labor market that lacks sufficient formal employment opportunities. The result is not unemployment in the traditional sense, but a form of labor market participation that offers little stability or upward mobility.
The Arab States and North Africa present the most acute formal unemployment picture. Youth unemployment in the Arab States stands at 26.2%, and at 22.6% in North Africa. In both subregions, at least one in three young people qualify as NEET, meaning they are neither working nor enrolled in education or training programs. NEET status is particularly concerning because it reflects disengagement from both the labor market and the educational system, making reintegration progressively more difficult the longer it persists.
What the ILO Recommends and What the Numbers Forecast
The report’s policy recommendations follow a framework the ILO describes as human-centered: investing in quality education and apprenticeship programs, strengthening public employment services, expanding social protection coverage for vulnerable young workers, and adopting AI governance approaches that prioritize job creation alongside innovation. ILO Director-General Gilbert F. Houngbo framed the issue as an investment proposition, arguing that decent jobs for young people represent one of the most productive uses of a country’s economic resources.
The ILO’s projections offer limited near-term optimism. Youth unemployment is expected to hold roughly steady at around 12.3% through both 2026 and 2027, meaning the current conditions are not projected to improve meaningfully within the next two years. For the 257 million young people currently classified as NEET, and for the 67 million who are actively unemployed, the report describes a labor market that is not in crisis in the traditional sense but is systematically failing to provide the entry points that previous generations could access.
The question embedded in the report’s subtitle, “Back to the Future,” is whether the pathways that once connected young people to stable employment can be rebuilt, or whether the structural forces reshaping the global labor market have permanently altered the transition from education to work.
FAQs
What does NEET mean and why does it matter for youth employment?
NEET stands for Not in Employment, Education, or Training. The ILO uses it to capture young people who have disengaged from both the labor market and formal education systems. In 2025, 257 million young people globally fell into this category, up 9 million from 2023. NEET status is particularly concerning because longer periods of disconnection from work and education make reintegration into the labor market progressively more difficult.
How is artificial intelligence affecting youth employment specifically?
The ILO estimates that 6.1% of jobs held by workers aged 15 to 29 are in occupations with high exposure to AI-related changes, primarily clerical and administrative roles. These overlap with middle-skilled positions that have historically served as entry-level pathways for young workers. The report notes that while AI’s direct impact remains uncertain, the disappearance of these roles narrows the available on-ramps into formal employment for workers without specialized skills or higher education credentials.
Which regions have the highest youth unemployment rates?
The Arab States recorded the highest regional youth unemployment rate at 26.2% in 2025, followed by North Africa at 22.6%. In both subregions, at least one in three young people are classified as NEET. North America experienced one of the sharpest relative increases, with youth unemployment rising from 8.3% in 2023 to 9.8% in 2025.
