Youth have always had higher unemployment rates – about twice or more than the average – as they are usually the last to be hired in an expansion and the first to be let go in a recession. In addition, young people engage in extensive job searching in their early years, and this can imply considerable job churning as both youth and employers look for a good match. This highlights the importance of facilitating the school-to-work transition and having early interventions to assist such youth before negative conditions set in. It also highlights the potential importance of determining those young people most “at risk” of long-term unemployment, and of targeting or streaming them into programmes that will yield the largest incremental net benefits given their characteristics. Unemployed youth without previous work experience often are not eligible for unemployment insurance benefits when they first enter the labour market. When they do receive job search assistance, they often face a bewildering array of programmes that are available to assist them, often with little guidance to help them select the programs that best meet their needs. Consequently, ensuring that today’s youth do not become a “lost generation” is an urgent matter. George Bernard Shaw once said that it is too bad that “youth is wasted on the young”, implying that youth do not realize the opportunities they have as youth and only see them as they get older. There is a danger, however, that many of today’s youth may be never have those opportunities and hence not even see them with hindsight. This book and others in the ADAPT Labour Studies Book-Series are intended to deal with these challenges, to make sure that youth is not wasted on the young.

Offering guidance on the opportunities and threats for future generations, and featuring interviews with business leaders, this book provides a constructive look at change. It directs the youth to become job creators, not job seekers, and to approach the corporate and political worlds with an entrepreneurial mind-set.

Comprises ten papers grouped under two themes: European strategies to fight youth unemployment: a comparative analysis and critical assessment; and National Action Plans: trends and challenges.

This book analyses the accessibility and success of vocational training programmes for unemployed and disadvantaged youth in Sub-Saharan Africa. Examining the implementation of vocational education and training programmes, the author assesses various internal and external enabling factors that can help foster youth employment. In doing so, the author presents a solid base for robust and evidence-informed practice and policy making for vocational training programmes, analysing such themes as employability skills, the labour market, and work-integrated learning. It also emphasises the importance of stakeholders taking into account the enabling and disabling environments found in a given local, regional or national context. It will be of interest to scholars of vocational training programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere, as well as of youth poverty and unemployment.

This text discusses in depth the youth unemployment problem and examines the various policy responses to it, including education and training, and active labour market policy. The book offers specific recommendations for this age group in industrialized, transition and developing countries.

Surveys the history of youth unemployment and identifies key issues underlying the current crisis. The Youth Unemployment Crisis: A Reference Handbook examines the recent phenomenon in the United States wherein young workers ages 16 to 24 are unemployed or disconnected from the labor force at disproportionate rates. It describes in detail what led to the crisis, who it affects, and what can be and is being done about it. The book opens with a chapter that addresses the nature and scope of the crisis, which is followed by a discussion of the inherent problems, controversies, and possible solutions. It includes essays from a diverse range of contributors, providing useful perspectives to round out the author's expertise, as well as a collection of data and documents; an overview of important people, organizations, and resources relating to the crisis; a chronology listing important events in the youth unemployment timeline; and a glossary of key terms.