How can we prevent the rising unemployment among those entering adulthood? A high-level event was held in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly session this autumn. There, the delegates discussed the future of young people who will enter the labour market.
According to the Russian Ministry of Labour, the number of unemployed people registered in Russia during the first half of 2019 increased by 18% compared to the same period last year. 3,3 million Russians are classified as unemployed. In other words, these people meet the International Labour Organization (ILO) criteria: they have no occupation which would provide them with income, are looking for a job and are ready to start shortly.
In January 2019, the proportion of young people under the age of 25 among the unemployed made up for 20,4%, of which 14% didn’t have any work experience.
At the beginning of the year, Russia’s Minister of Labour and Social Protection, Maxim Topilin, explained to the Rossiyskaya Gazeta journalists why there were more unemployed young people in the country than unemployed elderly people - 34,3% ages 20 to 29 versus 10,8% over 55. Firstly, young people do not find the salaries they seek. Secondly, they often prefer to have unofficial income, and thirdly, they do not have the skills employers require.
Labour and social experts note that we are now facing a situation in which the job market’s supply may exceed its demand. However, jobs that offer low salaries and require low-qualified personnel are available on the market. The weaker the region’s economy and the more young people there are, the higher the unemployment rate.
Inaction, lack of money and failure to find a job disappoint young people and lead them to believe they are useless, stirring a feeling of social isolation and injustice. This, in turn, can cause marginalization and exasperation. A set of urgent social and economic measures is necessary in order to tackle the unemployment among young people under the age of 25.
The ILO is looking for solutions that can prevent the growth of unemployment among people just entering adulthood. This specialized UN agency now has 187 member states. The ILO, however, unlike other UN agencies, has a unique structure. Along with government representatives, employers and workers have the right to vote on the ILO’s decisions. Promoting the principles of social justice has been enshrined in the ILO’s mandate since 1919 - the year of its establishment.
The future of the labour market and young people’s right to decent work became the focus of the high-level event held on September 23 on the sidelines of the 74th session of the UN General Assembly. The discussion was organized by the Russian Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry and the ILO. The participants included ILO Director General Guy Ryder; Russia’s Envoy to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya; Russia’s Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Protection, Alexei Cherkasov; and representatives of Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Moldova, Ecuador and South Africa.
The participants of the event called on ILO member states to ensure young people’s right to decent work and the opportunity to obtain professional skills that enable them to exercise that right.
Recently, the ILO’s work has focused on youth employment issues. One of the key matters facing the organization is how the global labour market will develop in the near future. In summer 2019, the organization adopted a declaration marking its centenary. The document states the main priority in the labour field of the future - the human. All work-related matters are viewed in terms of a person’s interests and social justice. UN Secretary General António Guterres said, commenting on the adoption of the Centenary Declaration, that this document provided “a historic opportunity to open a door to a brighter future for people around the world”.
In the Declaration and its other program documents, the ILO offers specific data-based guidelines to employers, workers and governments to ensure the right of youth to decent work.
This is quite a serious issue. According to the UN, in 2018, one fifth of the world’s youth were unemployed and received no training. Female employment presents a particularly difficult situation: the female unemployment rate is twice as high as male unemployment rate. The same ratio can be seen among young women and men who received no education.
According to the ILO’s forecast, youth employment may have a serious impact on the future of work. Guy Ryder, the ILO Director General, reiterated his concerns about an extremely difficult situation: “Young people are two to three times more likely to be unemployed than other people on labour market”. At the same time, the ILO Director General praised Russia’s efforts to address the problem: “Russia has made a serious contribution to the ILO work, including initiatives in reducing youth unemployment”. Mr Ryder also mentioned Russia’s efforts in the field of humanization of the world of work.
Russia’s Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Protection, Alexei Cherkasov, spoke at the meeting about the importance of the ILO’s support in youth employment matters, citing the statistics: “About 2,5 million people in Russia, half of those being young people from 14 to 29, receive state professional orientation services”. The official assured the meeting’s participants that Russian authorities will continue to support youth in the field of employment.
An important condition that will help ensure young people’s right to decent work in the future was also discussed in New York: through economic policies, aimed at supporting youth employment, authorities’ and the private sector’s active initiatives can considerably broaden young people’s opportunities for young people in the job market. The private sector plays a key part here. Companies not only provide young people with jobs, but also train them, enabling employees to become more qualified and therefore more likely to find a well-paid jobs.
Vasily Nebenzya, Russia’s Envoy to the UN, said during the side event that “Russia shares the organization’s strategic goals in the protection of the labour rights”. The diplomat also emphasized the ILO’s joint project with Russian company PAO LUKOIL.
This project, “Partnerships for Youth Employment in the Commonwealth of Independent States” will be implemented until 2022. It was created to facilitate more effective development of youth employment programs in Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and is aimed at assisting the CIS states in tackling challenfes in this area. The project is being implemented by the ILO.
The program consists of two phases, and results are already apparent. A number of studies on what young people face in the labour market were conducted, recommendations for policies boosting youth employment were drafted, pilot projects on the application of innovative active labour market programs were implemented, and initiatives to strengthen the capacity of public employment services in order to increase their effectiveness are underway. Moreover, the project supported Russian authorities’ efforts to update the professional standards and skills’ verification system.
The project will result in well-tested ideas that can spark the development of the world of work for young people, and produce the ideas that all ILO member states can implement.
This project is a unique example of the organization’s cooperation with a private Russian company, which set a goal of supporting international efforts to promote youth employment and ensure a decent future for young people.