Youth unemployment

Nowdays, among working age individuals, not everyone, and especially young people, can afford to get access to employment without going through a period of unemployment. The youth unemployment is still a worrying issue and challenging. The issue has been dealt with with more or less succes. Many schools offer vocational education programs during secondary education which is aimed at providing skills required to enter employment. It is thought that vocational training is one of the solutions to deal with youth unemployment. Note that unemployment results from war and colonisation. Palestinian unemployment case clearly brings out the scourge they are subjucted to and how much it represents an impediment to any progress.

Young Iraqis were reportedly tempted to take risks by showing their willingness to be among the foreign soldiers called upon by the Ukrainian government to defend itself. It is the deep despair that pushes them to want to leave their country because they seek employments opportunities to not avail and even find fewer jobs commensurate with their professional qualifications most of the time. But the Iraqi government, fortunately, strongly opposes these attempts. According to the Aljazeera website, the Iraqi Constitution prohibits this kind of engagement of Iraqis in the ranks of the armed forces of foreign countries.

More and more young Iraqi graduates are engaging in the labour market which is resulting in a huge mismatch between supply of and demand for labour thus increasing unemployment. Why young Iraqui have so many difficulties in finding jobs ?

One explanation refers to the lack of vacancies that are commensurate with the educational level of graduates. There is tendency to blame this discrepancy on the level of education provided by universities and orher institutions.
Some people think the young graduates don’t accept modest jobs in occupations that don’t require high skills. Are they right in doing so? It is thought that skills mismatch negatively impact people because they increase the risk of unemployment and don’t leave individuals better off insofar as these jobs are low-paying and bring very little satisfaction.
Others factors contribute to young individuals unemployment in Iraq such as nepotism and economic and social conditions which are too hard to deal with.

Skills mismatch has negative impacts for individuals, including a higher risk of unemployment, lower wages and lower job satisfaction.

Youth unemployment in OECD

In some OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries, unemployment affects, but unequally, young university graduates by gender. So the unemployment rate is on average slightly higher for women than for young men with the same level of education. However, there are some exceptions depending on the country. Tertiary educated young people do not escape unemployment.

With rising unemployment, analysts of market labour say about skills mismatch that certainly education levels in jobs seekers matters but not as much as the specific field in which the job seekers have their education. Therefore, skills mismatch problems would araise and we’ll have to deal with two situations either over-skilling or under-skilling.

Youth unemployment in Jordan

Young Jordaniens can’t help but get a sense of great frustration which is mainly due to the fact that they get qualifications and are only offered unskilled jobs. What’s more, the conflict-related unemployment of Syrian refugees only made matters worse.

It’s believed that concerning young Jordanian unemployment boils down to the lack of vocational training an entrepreneurship. That is why AFD (Agence Française de Développement) supported projects aimed at promoting vocational training and entrepreneurship in Jordan. It dates back to 2018.

Factors of employability in Indonesia

However, any vocational training, particularly that provided in vocational high schools, does not guarantee access to employment and is not enough to reduce unemployment as shown by a study by Indonesian authors. Here’s an excerpt from their econometric study : « positive self-concept will increase individual employability, as this positivity enables them to take a positive stance towards everything they face, better at appreciating themselves and see viable positive steps they can take to obtain a job. »

Youth Unemployment in Palestine

« The Occupied Palestinian Territory has the highest unemployment rate in the world, and women and youth are disproportionately impacted by the joblessness crisis. »

The huge rate of youth unemployment in occupied Palestinian territories brings out the labour market failure and the weakness and ineffectiveness of the international institutions. So, because of the ever lasting, growing and illigitimate colonisation, Palestinian people not only suffer everyday from the appaling consequences of the settlments but they also can’t enjoy peace, safety nor acces to employment.