Global youth unemployment increased to 12.4 percent in 2025, leaving an estimated 67 million people aged 15 to 24 without work, as weak economic growth and insufficient job creation made it more difficult for young people to enter the labour market, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO).
The ILO’s *Global Employment Trends for Youth 2026: Back to the Future* report also found that the share of young people not in employment, education or training rose slightly to 20 percent in 2025, affecting more than 257 million young people worldwide.
The findings point to a worsening employment outlook for a generation entering the workforce amid slowing growth, geopolitical tensions and rapid technological change.
“A generation that cannot find decent work cannot build its future with confidence,” ILO Director-General Gilbert F. Houngbo said in the report.
“When young people are locked out of quality employment, countries lose talent, productivity and social cohesion. Creating decent jobs for young people is not just a social imperative; it is one of the smartest investments a country can make,” he said.
Youth unemployment increased in eight of the world’s 11 subregions between 2023 and 2025, according to the report. The trend signals a renewed global youth-jobs challenge after earlier improvements in several labour markets.
Some of the sharpest increases in youth unemployment were recorded in higher-income economies, where many young people face diminishing opportunities in occupations that have traditionally served as entry points to stable careers.
In Northern America, youth unemployment rose from 8.3 percent in 2023 to 9.8 percent in 2025. In Northern, Southern and Western Europe, the youth unemployment rate remained high at 15 percent in 2025, with 20 of the 29 countries in the subregion reporting worsening employment prospects for young people.
The ILO said the decline in middle-skilled jobs was making it harder for young people to secure stable work. Clerical and administrative work, service and sales jobs, manufacturing-related occupations and some technical positions have traditionally provided pathways into the labour market but are now shrinking.
In developing economies, low unemployment rates often conceal more serious employment insecurity, the report said. Many young people cannot afford to remain unemployed and instead enter informal, low-paid or unstable work with limited social protection.
Nearly nine in 10 young workers aged 15 to 29 in low- and lower-middle-income countries are employed informally, according to the ILO. The report identified sub-Saharan Africa as facing particularly acute demographic pressure, with large numbers of young people entering labour markets that are not generating enough decent jobs.
The Arab States and Northern Africa continue to post the world’s highest youth unemployment rates. Youth unemployment stood at 26.2 percent in the Arab States and 22.6 percent in Northern Africa in 2025. At least one in three young people in both subregions were classified as NEET.
Technological change, particularly advances in artificial intelligence, is also transforming the outlook for young workers.
The report estimates that 6.1 percent of jobs held by people aged 15 to 29 are in occupations highly exposed to AI-related change. Many of these jobs overlap with the middle-skilled occupations that have declined since 2023, especially clerical and administrative work.
However, the report said demand is continuing to grow in knowledge-based technical occupations, including science, health and engineering. It stressed the importance of improving access to education, technical skills and lifelong learning to help young people adapt to labour-market changes.
“There is increasing noise around AI,” said Sukti Dasgupta, Director of the ILO’s Employment, Skills and Sustainable Enterprises Department. “While the direct impact on jobs is still unclear, we must not be complacent and underestimate the risks.”
“We need to step up our investment in skills, lifelong learning and social protection so that young people can adapt to change and seize new opportunities,” she said. “Technological progress, including AI, must work for young people, not against them.”
The ILO called for governments to adopt a human-centred approach to AI governance, invest in quality education and apprenticeships, strengthen employment services and expand social protection for young people.
It also urged policymakers to pursue macroeconomic and sectoral policies that generate more decent jobs, particularly for young women and young people in vulnerable situations.
The central challenge, the report said, is not only to create more jobs, but to ensure that young people can access work that offers security, dignity and a realistic path toward independent adulthood.
