Youth suffer most from loss of employment opportunities in Covid-19 fallout

[webfact]

Youth suffer most from loss of employment opportunities in Covid-19 fallout

By The Nation

 

 

The number of unemployed youth in Thailand will double this year, while 220 million young workers in Asia will be vulnerable to labour market disruption caused by Covid-19, the Asian Development Bank said. 

 

The Covid-19 pandemic has triggered a massive disruption of labour markets, having a disproportionate impact on the employment of young people, said ADB report titled “Tackling the Covid-19 youth employment crisis in Asia and the Pacific”. 

 

With lockdowns and travel restrictions in place, demand has slumped and many businesses have been forced to close or cut back on operations, having a serious impact on workers. Nearly 220 million people aged 15 to 24 in the region are particularly vulnerable given that they hold insecure, informal, part-time jobs in sectors that have especially been hit hard. 

 

Given their relative lack of experience, young people face higher rates of unemployment than people above the age of 25 regardless of the business cycle. Young people are also more likely than adults to work in less secure, lower-wage jobs usually with limited legal rights, social protection and representation. 

 

The Covid-19 crisis brings the vulnerabilities of youth labour markets to the fore but with the further complication of disrupted education and training pathways. Young people will be hit harder than adults in the immediate crisis and also bear higher longer-term economic and social costs. Pre-existing vulnerabilities of youth in the labour market will be exacerbated, with negative consequences for intergenerational poverty and inequality.

 

The crisis negatively impacts the prospects for youth through three channels: job disruptions from reduced working hours and layoffs; disruption in education and training as they try to complete studies; and difficulties transitioning from school to work and moving between jobs. 

 

The crisis will affect young people differently depending on their situation in the labour market. The scale of the impact will depend on the length of the crisis, the choices governments make for socioeconomic recovery and the capacity of institutions to implement effective measures.

 

Youth in the Asia-Pacific region faced a challenging labour market situation before the crisis. The regional youth unemployment rate was 13.8 per cent in 2019 compared with 3 per cent for adults and the global youth unemployment rate was 13.6 per cent. More than 160 million youth (24 per cent of the population) were not in employment, education or training in 2019, and the region’s rates have been rising primarily as a result of the exclusion of young women who face an excessive burden of unpaid household and care work. 

 

Four in five young workers in the region were engaged in informal employment – a higher share than among adults – and one in four young workers was living in conditions of extreme or moderate poverty.

 

At the onset of the crisis, nearly half of young workers in the region were employed in the four sectors destined to be hardest hit by the recession. These sectors – wholesale and retail trade and repair, manufacturing, rental and business services, and accommodation and food services – employed nearly half of all young people (more than 100 million) working in Asia-Pacific at the onset of the crisis. Young women are overrepresented in three of the four highly impacted sectors, particularly accommodation and food services.

 

The vulnerability of youth in labour markets was already visible in the first half of this year as the Covid-19 crisis unfolded. Youth unemployment rates jumped in the first quarter of 2020 from the last quarter of 2019 in all economies for which data is available. 

 

Compared with the first quarter of 2019, youth unemployment rate increased in six of nine economies that have quarterly data available: Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, and Vietnam, as well as in Hong Kong which showed the largest increase of 3 percentage points. 

 

All economies that experienced increases showed sharper jumps in youth rates than in adult rates.

 

The reduction in working hours is unprecedented. Working hours across the region dropped 7.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2020 from the fourth quarter 2019. The loss of working hours rose to 13.5 per cent in the second quarter of 2020. While the regional figure is not disaggregated by age, evidence from two countries – South Korea and Thailand – showed young workers experienced a significantly larger loss of hours than adults.

 

Job loss among youth will continue throughout 2020 and could result in youth unemployment rates doubling. Between 10 and 15 million youth jobs (full-time equivalent) may be lost across 13 Asia-Pacific countries 2020. These estimates are based on the expected fall in output and consequent decrease in labour demand for the year relative to a non-Covid-19 scenario. The estimates include large countries, such as India and Indonesia, as well as small ones such as Fiji and Nepal.

 

The projected rise in youth unemployment rates varies considerably across the 13 countries, but increases are expected in all countries. In Cambodia, Fiji, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines and Thailand, youth unemployment rates are expected to at least double the 2019 estimates even if Covid-19 is contained.

 

Policy measures are urgently required to tackle the youth employment crisis in Asia-Pacific and recover lost ground on inclusive growth and sustainable development. Experience from past crises suggests that young people who try to enter the working world during a slowdown face long-term impacts on employment pathways, wages and productivity. 

 

To minimise future “scarring” of the current generation, governments are called upon to urgently adopt and implement large-scale and targeted measures to stimulate the economy and youth employment, balancing the inclusion of youth in wider labour market and economic recovery measures with youth-targeted interventions to maximise efficiency in the allocation of resources.

 

Support measures, many of which should be directed at enterprises in the hardest-hit sectors where youth job losses are concentrated, to be prioritised include:

 

• Providing youth-targeted wage subsidies and public employment programmes;

 

• Expanding job information and employment services targeted to young jobseekers;

 

• Supporting apprenticeship programmes and focusing on demand-driven skills development;

 

• Increasing funds for upskilling and reskilling, especially in growth sectors;

 

• Investing in digital inclusion for equitable access to education, training and entrepreneurship; and 

 

• Supporting young entrepreneurs through access to capital combined with non-financial services.

 

Three cross-cutting considerations should underpin an effective policy response: reaching the most vulnerable youth including the poorest and marginalised young women, meaningfully engaging young people in policy development and social dialogue, and facilitating disaggregation of crisis impact data by age and enhanced youth labour market information.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/business/30393155

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-08-19

 

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[PatOngo]

No doubt the oldest profession in the world will benefit from increased numbers of new applicants! No experience necessary!

 

 

Edited August 18, 2020 by PatOngo

[RichardColeman]

58 minutes ago, webfact said:

The number of unemployed youth in Thailand will double this year

Based on a fantasy -6.5 % gdp  ? So reality will be at least 4 times that unemployed. 

[sammieuk1]

No young generals will be affected ???? 

[yellowboat]

The youth in Thailand were having trouble finding work before the virus I believe.  Given the domestic consumption is so low, exports are the only lifeline, and chief among them, at this time, is food production.  

[alexlm]

4 hours ago, PatOngo said:

No doubt the oldest profession in the world will benefit from increased numbers of new applicants! No experience necessary!

 

 

Great for that industry, isn't it? ????

And for the "customers"...

As long as Tourists are allowed back in before 2087... I heard they were planning to report the opening of the borders to 2090! ...

[PatOngo]

1 minute ago, alexlm said:

Great for that industry, isn't it? ????

And for the "customers"...

As long as Tourists are allowed back in before 2087... I heard they were planning to report the opening of the borders to 2090! ...

They are too greedy for that! As soon as they can get the money flowing, the gates will open!

[5633572526]

Nobody in the military or the government (same same) will be missing any paychecks so they do not care. The emergency decree will keep getting extended and the decimation of the economy will continue 

[mrwebb8825]

I heard Nana and Cowboy are going virtual reality; you buy your own beer, log in, pick your dream girl from the menu,  get naked, send them 1,000 baht (2,000 if you want the girl naked too) and they wave a hand up and down in front of your winkie for 30 minutes. 

Edited August 19, 2020 by mrwebb8825

[hotchilli]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

Youth suffer most from loss of employment opportunities in Covid-19 fallout

Prayut is not listening to anyone but himself and the labour ministry has no solutions for the foreseeable future. The economy is tanking so businesses are mostly on hold for the time being until things start to look better. Tourism is dead for this year and will be only marginally better next year.

Prayut has no idea as to what to do as he and all his cronies are clueless about how to run a countries economy, time to go back to the barracks and shout some orders.

[miamiman123]

Thailand better start using those THAI English speakers in their school EP programs. Forget the stupid foreign teacher BS. It was all a game using those foreign teachers who were showing “Schindler’s list” in the classes and ballin like a baby w the Thai students who have no idea about what happened 

pure drama!

[Crusader]

Youth suffer most is not just a Covid thing.   Many years ago I was in the Project Manager's 'office' on a large construction in London, and they were interviewing for a replacement engineer (one chap got very sick).  There were a few applicants mingling about...but one very young guy and one quite elderly guy.  Whilst the young guy was busy getting all his papers etc. out of his briefcase, the older guy had noticed some construction drawings with comments on them in red ink.  He had already planned a solution to their problem before being asked about it...needless to say, he was hired on the spot.  sometimes it is experience that is required.

[DeeMoney]

1 hour ago, miamiman123 said:

Thailand better start using those THAI English speakers in their school EP programs. Forget the stupid foreign teacher BS. It was all a game using those foreign teachers who were showing “Schindler’s list” in the classes and ballin like a baby w the Thai students who have no idea about what happened 

pure drama!

There are many passionate and smart Thais who are fluent in English who would love to teach, but many will not accept anything lower than 50,000 a month because they can earn more in the private sector (regular office jobs).

 

And if the government was more than willing to provide this minimum for them, it will cause issues with pay gap. Many will question why this and that person is earning more.

[Bender Rodriguez]

IF they would have invested in education, than youth would be more high skilled and those can work from home, no matter covid or not

[Keesters]

1 hour ago, Crusader said:

Youth suffer most is not just a Covid thing.   Many years ago I was in the Project Manager's 'office' on a large construction in London, and they were interviewing for a replacement engineer (one chap got very sick).  There were a few applicants mingling about...but one very young guy and one quite elderly guy.  Whilst the young guy was busy getting all his papers etc. out of his briefcase, the older guy had noticed some construction drawings with comments on them in red ink.  He had already planned a solution to their problem before being asked about it...needless to say, he was hired on the spot.  sometimes it is experience that is required.

Had the company been really smart they would have employed the young guy as the old guy's assistant. On the job training is the best way to get experience. Unis & colleges are mostly a waste of time for construction engineers. 

[hotchilli]

2 hours ago, Crusader said:

Whilst the young guy was busy getting all his papers etc. out of his briefcase, the older guy had noticed some construction drawings with comments on them in red ink.

25 plus years ago I was contracting as an aircraft engineer around Europe, mostly 12 month contracts, I was in Oman at the time and wanted to get something back in the UK after 10 years of hopping around.

An engineering company was advertising for people with aircraft knowledge as they were building a flight simulator for Seos Displays Ltd and didn't understand all the drawings to build the structure. It was their first project in this direction.

In a similar fashion to your story about a dozen smartly dressed young lads were there for the day like me, we got the tour around the parent company then showed to a smaller facility where this structure would be made, after the interview we were all taken separately into a room and questioned by 3 company personnel.

At the end we were grouped back together and asked if we had any questions, I was the only one that asked, "if I build it how will you get it out the door"?

[TERMINATOR3AB]

I do  not   think "ther oldest profession " will  be the answer  the young  are also  affraid  of this  virus 

that  close contact  maybe  not  worth the risk but  starving  desparate  kids  could  do anything

I think the  Winners  will be the  big  Drug families   many  rule  and control  many provences  and  cities

with so many out of work  kids  the  amount  of  dealers  to signup   will be  very  tempting

Big  money   risk  yes  but not  viral  

Also  despartate  times   many will start to  use  drugs  (if supplied  free)  which  will  make  selling  and dealing  a  means to an end 

I hope I am wrong...however  in hard times  I have seen this even in Australia ...Ice  now is  ripe  and  getting  worse  as the young  find it harder  and harder  to  find  work ....hooked   and dealing  is the  only  answer  to some poor kids in the big cities 

 

[Old Dissenter]

10 hours ago, PatOngo said:

No doubt the oldest profession in the world will benefit from increased numbers of new applicants! No experience necessary!

 

 

Maybe not 

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-07-22/South-East-Asia-s-sex-workers-in-coronavirus-limbo-SkGGG2kWU8/index.html

[Aussie Col]

High youth unemployment = trouble on the streets of any country and it will be the same here.

[Knocker33]

9 hours ago, PatOngo said:

They are too greedy for that! As soon as they can get the money flowing, the gates will open!

See there was a big water party in the Chinese flu ground zero over the weekend. I wonder who the first tourists will be

[PatOngo]

1 hour ago, Knocker33 said:

See there was a big water party in the Chinese flu ground zero over the weekend. I wonder who the first tourists will be

It'll be ok, they'll be welcome as long as they are carrying the vaccine..........................MONEY!