Youth Unemployment as a Social Issue

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Causes of Youth Unemployment
Consequences
Proposed Remedy
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

The performance of any economy can be measured accurately based on the level of employment and unemployment in a country. Unemployment is a macroeconomic factor that some researchers have used in the past to assess the health of most economies. Countries that have high unemployment rates are said to perform worse economically compared to those that have lower unemployment rates. Most of the developing nations have a high population of young people.

In the developed nations, the level of creation of new jobs is not as fast as the population growth of these nations. Young workers assume a higher percentage of employees who are useful for the nation and economy. This group has the most energy to perform tasks that are required in various places of work.

The level of youth unemployment presents a significant political, social, and economic issue for the economy. Young people find it difficult to secure jobs due to their relatively low experience in most of the jobs (Narendranathan and Elias 163). Globally, the unemployment rate for the youths has often exceeded that of other age groups.

The youth unemployment rate rose in the current century, reaching the highest level in the year 2009 due to the global recession that was experienced at this time. This paper discusses youth unemployment as a significant social issue. Besides, it proposes a remedy for the same using an organizational setting.

Causes of Youth Unemployment

Different scholars have studied the different causes and reasons for youth unemployment. These reasons can be classified into different categories, including those that relate to the local economy, the individual characteristics, including training, and social factors. Challenges that are experienced by youths in the area of employment include the universal problems of poor skills at the workplace.

Unlike the older age groups, youths have little experience in any form of work since most of them are just from the training institutions. According to Narendranathan and Elias (163), youths are also unemployed because most of them lack the appropriate skills and information to acquire these skills. Many unemployed youths also have inadequate credentials for the work that they are required to perform.

Over the last few decades, youth employment has stagnated to the extent of performing worse than the employment of adults. Different factors have led to the high levels of youth unemployment, with the most widely studied of them being the skills that are available to the unemployed youths. In most economies, prospective employees need to have special connections, networks, and information to stand a better chance in the employment circles (Narendranathan and Elias 165).

Unlike their adult counterparts, youth employees are not well connected with other working people. The results of this gap include the low employment rate for this age group. Traditional networks that were used to secure employment are not relevant to contemporary youths. They end up being less employed, unlike their older counterparts.

Other reasons include the skills and training that the youths possess. According to Narendranathan and Elias, the youths are often trained on the theoretical aspects of the jobs in which they are about to enroll (180). Therefore, these individuals possess the general theoretical knowledge of the jobs they trained in, although such expertise is often not enough to prepare them for the actual work experiences that they are encounter.

Narendranathan and Elias (180) blame the school curricula for the poor training of these young individuals, stating that most of the training courses are not aligned with the needs of the business world. In most of the countries that have high unemployment rates among the youths, the educational system can be described to be a direct contributor to the high unavailability of skills among young people.

Most learning institutions around the world have the focus of increasing the output of students and trained individuals from their institutions. This observation means that the bulk of students and graduates from these institutions are less qualified for the job market. The job market is also changing at a rapid rate.

Training institutions have demonstrated their inability to cope with this rapid change in the job market (Lasselle and Svizzero 491). The 21^stcentury has several challenges that are better addressed within the job environment. The experience is obtained better by working for longer periods at this workplace. Young people do not have this luxury. Hence, they often end up unemployed.

The ethics and social skills of the youth are a major concern for employers. They are considered to have ethical characters that are not desirable as compared to their older counterparts. Youths are at a higher risk for employees as compared to their older counterparts. Organizations are willing to employ older age groups instead of the young class. The consequences of an unemployed young generation are visible, as discussed in the next section.

Consequences

Youth unemployment has led to several things in societies where joblessness is high. The consequences are life-long for the young generation, affecting them throughout their entire lifetime. According to Lasselle and Svizzero (491), youth unemployment may have temporary consequences such as labor market fluctuations. Young people are not only affected individually.

National developmental trajectories for the particular areas are also affected negatively (Narendranathan and Elias 163). Some researchers have concluded that people who have difficulties in the initial integration into the workplace have lifelong effects that they experience in their career lives.

Apart from the lifelong challenges in securing unemployment, youths are also predisposed to social pathologies from the inability to secure employment (Lasselle and Svizzero 493). These young individuals are likely to have direct poverty effects because of being unemployed at an early age.

According to CIPD, young unemployed people often have problems in their social circles such as psychological deficits, health effects, and cognitive deficits (23). These individuals are more likely to be engaged in activities that are not socially acceptable based on how they deviate from the normal (Lasselle and Svizzero 494).

The other consequence of youth unemployment in the world is increased insecurity. According to Narendranathan and Elias, unemployed young people are more likely to engage in criminal activities (174). Developing nations that have very high unemployment rates are generally insecure. Research shows that young individuals are more likely to engage in criminal activities as compared to their older counterparts.

The problem of unemployment acts as a catalyst for them to engage in criminal activities to make money to sustain their families. Most of the unemployed young people survive on handouts. Besides, their families also depend on them. Desperation and the desire to retain the role and family responsibilities propel these young people to crime where they can make some money to sustain these families.

Unemployment among the youths is a vicious cycle that is retained in the families that have unemployed people. According to Lasselle and Svizzero, as the unemployed young people raise families, social problems that accompany the unemployment cause the family members, especially the children, to acquire the same conditions (491).

This claim means that children from a family from which one member was unemployed are more likely to experience the same when they get to the same age of employment. This cycle of unemployment within families establishes families and societies that are predisposed to unemployment and poor socio-economic status. The existence of this form of disparity encourages the existence of a divide in the population. This difference leads to political and social upheavals.

The existence of youth unemployment has another effect and consequence of wasted resource in the developing regions (Lasselle and Svizzero 491). The existence of high youth unemployment has the consequence of limiting the available inputs for growth in the developing nations and economies (Lasselle and Svizzero 491). The result of reduced input from the national economy means that the nations are robbed of this human resource, thus ensuring that they are unable to grow at a fast rate.

Proposed Remedy

The problem of youth unemployment can be tackled through the creation of special profit and non-profit organizations that keep these young people occupied. This paper proposes the introduction of a non-profit organization to lower the unemployment rate effectively among the youths in the population.

The creation of employment for youths requires an approach that has been tested over time. In this paper, the exact method of ensuring increased youth employment is through an emerging organization. This organization is a non-profit organization whose main aim is to ensure increased employment for the youth.

In the developing economies, the existing non-profit organizations need to create enterprise companies where youths may be equipped with the right skills and tools to engage in activities that are beneficial to them. In most of the developing nations, social organizations exist to provide funding in the form of loans for young people. Most young people have business ideas that can lead to increased self-employment if they are funded. Governments should come up with more organizations that are meant to offer to fund for business ideas.

According to Lasselle and Svizzero (497), most of the unemployed young people who have the desire to secure loans cannot do so because they are unable to obtain securities. The provision of loans that use special means of security apart from financial means can go a long way in ensuring that the youths obtain employment status.

Organizations that should oversee this project are the non-profit organizations that can access the youth and vet the ideas that they have. Youths who have valid ideas should then receive funding for their projects. The assessment of the validity of these projects that require funding can be carried out thorough background checks on the applicants and a follow-up of the individuals and their businesses.

Most of the youths who have benefitted from such a program where financing for projects is done through special organizations contribute significantly to the economies of the respective economies. Success has been realized in the use of such a program in areas that have applied it. Most of these areas report a reduction in youth unemployment since unemployed youths can obtain revenues from their new occupations. The creation of more slots to the unemployed youths ensures that economies tap this human resource.

Organizations that should be involved in the delivery of these services to the unemployed should be streamlined with the conventional financial systems since the effects may be felt in all aspects of the economy. Most of the developing nations in the world have organizations that can oversee the delivery of loans to the youths. The transformation of these organizations can oversee the development of economies.

Some of the challenges with the transformation of non-profit organizations into financial institutions include high rates of default for loans that are given to the youths. Some individuals can take advantage of this system to benefit themselves. The results of this move include corruption, nepotism, and misappropriation of funds. However, these problems can be tackled through the efficient vetting of youths and the organizations that are involved in the transfer of funds.

The advantages of using non-governmental organizations to offer credit to the youths who have limited requirements mean that the processes that are followed are faster than the conventional ones. Authorities can reduce unemployment issues at a faster rate compared to the use of other methods and profit institutions. Many of the countries that have non-governmental organizations also have high unemployment rates for the youths (Narendranathan and Elias 173).

Most of the youths who are employed in these countries are in the formal sectors. These economies hold large potentials in the informal sector. The opportunity may be utilized through the increased funding of the youths who have ideas on how to utilize their potentials in the informal sectors.

Many of the nations that have large economies such as those in North America and Europe have a significant unemployed youthful population. These nations can also benefit from the introduction of such measures as described above. These economies have surpluses in their budgets. The surpluses can be channeled towards funding projects started by the youths. This method of economic stimulation is likely to reduce the level of youth unemployment in these regions.

Other measures can be used in combination with the above solutions. These actions include the introduction of organizations that offer training and skills to the youths to make them more marketable in the contemporary business environment. If used together with funding of projects that targets the youthful generation, these actions will lead to improved employment for the respective age group.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the issue of youth unemployment is a significant social matter in most countries around the world. This paper has focused on unemployment among the youths and its significance in the contemporary business environment. The paper has established that the main reasons why many youths are unemployed include the poor skills that they have been equipped with and the requirement that organizations have set for experienced individuals.

The consequences of youth unemployment include a vicious cycle of unemployment in their generations, increased crime, and frustration in this generation. Therefore, the paper has proposed the establishment of a special fund to be managed by non-governmental organizations to subsidize the youths in the projects that they develop. This strategy will ensure increased investment in the informal sector.

Works Cited

CIPD. Work experience placements that work: a guide for employers. London: CIPD, 2012. Print.

Lasselle, Laurence, and Serge Svizzero. “Involuntary Unemployment In Imperfectly Competitive General Equilibrium Models.” Journal of Economic Surveys 16.4 (2002): 487-507. Print.

Narendranathan, Wiji, and Peter Elias. “Influences of Past History On The Incidence Of Youth Unemployment: Empirical Findings For The UK.” Oxford Bulletin of Economics & Statistics 55.2(1993): 161-185. Print.

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