Paris– Youth are hit disproportionately hard by the recession. In the first quarter of 2011, the unemployment rate for young people (aged 15 to 24) was 17.4% in the OECD rich, industrialised countries, compared with 7% for adults (aged 25 and over).
Unemployed men marching during the Great Depression | Wikimedia Commons
“Youth who are neither in employment nor in education or training are a group at high risk of marginalisation and exclusion from the labour market,” according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which groups 34 top industrialised countries and some emerging economies.
“Before the crisis, long-term unemployment affected 4 out of 10 unemployed people in France and Germany but it was less of a problem in Spain and the UK, and affected only one in ten unemployed in the US,” OECD secretary-general, Angel Gurría, warned.
By mid 2011, unemployment in the OECD area was still stubbornly above 44 million, over 13 million higher than its pre-crisis level. Some OECD member countries such as Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain have reached double-digit unemployment rates in July 2011 and the U.S. unemployment rate more than doubled to over 9%.
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