Among the more tragic outcomes of this pandemic era (and, no, it is not yet over) has been the declining ability by countries all over the world to address the serious challenge of youth unemployment and the productive participation of our young people in society.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) has suggested
that young people are at least three times less likely to gain access to
meaningful employment than their seniors. At this time of the pandemic, the
young have been the most significant victims of shrinking, undermined labour
markets.
In most instances this means that among the growing cohort
of unemployed you can expect to encounter the under-25s in expanding numbers –
particularly young women.
In its 2022 youth employment report, the ILO estimate of
youth not engaged in either employment, education or training in the Latin
American and Caribbean region is 20.5%.
No one would argue that the Caribbean statistic is likely to
be considerably higher given our thin resource bases, high vulnerability to
external shocks and weakened resilience in some key sectors. In T&T, the
rate was estimated at 9.12% in pre-pandemic 2019.
Bear in mind, the technical folks working on these things
assess youth unemployment as the share of the labour force ages 15-24 without
work but available for and seeking employment.
Our comparatively low percentage could, in that light, be
symptomatic of a severe crisis being manifest in a variety of ways as growing
numbers withdraw from contention for jobs.
Increasing the official age of retirement - which is an
entirely understandable compulsion given the bunching of state retirement
benefits - can also have the impact of keeping older people in positions that
could otherwise be made available to the young.
There is much to dampen the prospect of youth employment.
But also no shortage of challenges to independent youth entrepreneurship within
both the formal and informal sectors.
The pursuit of opportunities in the informal economy (which
accounts for 77% of youth employment globally) is frequently discouraged and
even punished here.
There is indeed evidence that our informal sector has grown
during the pandemic. In many instances, it has met public demand for goods and
services more seamlessly than obtained in the past. Business groupings need to
make greater efforts to embrace the new initiatives and to provide greater
support to bring recognition and legitimacy to them.
Meanwhile, the focus of ILO efforts to generate increased
movement from the informal to formal has not been readily embraced by either
the state or the network of private institutions assigned implicit
responsibility for so doing. The benefits of achieving this are readily
expressed in access to social protection mechanisms.
Instead, these most vulnerable subjects of the scourge of
brittle labour markets, the young, are routinely and pointedly excluded from
participating in those areas that rely on the energy and creativity they bring
naturally to the table.
State agencies, banks, insurance companies and others
seemingly lie in wait to shatter dreams. Labour unions pay them absolutely no
mind and the organised private sector is slow to embrace them. This is quite a
formidable alignment of countervailing forces.
To their credit, some of the larger more successful business
enterprises have attempted to provide a measure of support, even as a form of
enlightened self-interest.
Dismantling mechanisms to promote the required social
dialogue, such as the National Tripartite Advisory Council, is thus among the
worst things that can happen at this time.
In this respect, our labour unions are drifting into a
rapidly moving stream of irrelevance, beyond its undeniable role in the
collective bargaining process.
Broader social activism has been abandoned with little input
into modern realities that impact on the world of work, social peace, and the
interests of the people of tomorrow.
Additionally, while there has been understandable concern by
all about our young men, girls and women actually account for a higher
proportion of unemployed youth than their male counterparts and face a
multiplicity of unique, corresponding risks.
Globally, young men are almost 1.5 times more likely than
young women to be employed.
This is one of those times when the macro-economic
fundamentals cannot stand on their own. Debt to GDP ratios, rates of (jobless)
growth, foreign currency cover and what sits idle and unproductive in the
banking kitty mean nothing if the reality signals a crisis of the young.
We are not going to be forgiven for dropping the ball on
this one. The costs are too high to contemplate. We are already witnessing some
inevitable impacts.
