Asia Times: Asia's restless, jobless youth


	March 1, 2002	atimes.com

Asian Crisis

Asia's restless, jobless youth
By Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK - Asia-Pacific governments may face waves of youth unrest, crime and vandalism if they fail to reduce the number of unemployed youngsters, which has reached "unprecedented" heights, the International Labor Organization (ILO) warns.

What the region needs are innovative education programs that train youth with the skills demanded by the labor market, ILO officials said on Wednesday during the opening of a three-day meeting here on "Youth Employment in Asia and the Pacific".

"Governments have to ensure that once the youth come out of the education system, they are employable," said Ian Chambers, director of the ILO's East Asia division. "We have noted there is a clear mismatch between what the education system produces and what the labor market demands."

He also urged policy-makers to take a hard look at some of the established youth training programs that look good on paper but are wanting in many respects. These include programs set up in cities such as Bangkok that cater to youth of the middle and upper classes, "who are not totally dependent on it for employment, since they have other options".

"But the ones who need training programs most are the youth who have no access to such initiatives, like those living in Isaan," or northeastern Thailand, Chambers added during a news conference.

Furthermore, governments should not perceive youth "as a problem" but as "partners of development", Saifuddin Abdullah, a member of the United Nations Secretary General's High-Level Panel for the Youth Employment Network, said during a panel discussion. "Youth participation has to be institutionalized in the government consultation program seeking answers to unemployment."

Jobless youth in Asia and the Pacific make up more than 50 percent, or some 33 million young people, of the global figure of the 66 million young men and women who are unemployed, states a conference document.

Of that number, some countries in the region - both developing and developed - have been flagged by the UN labor agency as having "high and rising" unemployed youth. They include Sri Lanka, with 29 percent unemployment among its youth, the Philippines, with 25 percent, South Korea, with 15 percent, and recession-plagued Japan, with almost 10 percent.

Youth are more adversely affected by unemployment than adults, explains San Yuenwah, social affairs officer at the social development section of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). "Youth unemployment tends to be three to four times higher than non-youth unemployment," San said. "In fact, unemployment rates are generally higher for the more educated than those who are less educated, [and] in most developing countries of the region, unemployment is mainly an urban phenomenon," San added.

Experts also touched on the equally disturbing underemployment indicators in the region. Chambers said that underemployment is widespread among youth in the agricultural sectors in Southeast Asia. "Despite their potential, they only work during the planting and harvesting season."

Along with the worrisome unemployment picture for young people, the ILO also pointed to the predicted increase in the region's population, which will compound the "ballooning unemployment" problem and is threatening to undermine development in the continent.

"By 2010, the global youth population is expected to grow by 116 million, or 11 percent, reaching almost 1.2 billion - with two-thirds of this growth in Asia and Pacific region," states an ILO background note.

Apart from focusing on the statistical part of the unemployment problem, labor experts also discussed the psychological impact of youth unemployment and underemployment. "Unemployment has severely damaging effects on young people," said San. "They suffer low self-esteem, exclusion from mainstream society and impoverishment."

In fact, the Southeast Asian economic meltdown in 1997 threw up numerous cases of affected youth, since they were the first to be fired during this crisis. "Wage cuts, job insecurity affect youth in times of crises," Chris Chamberlin of the World Bank said.

While ILO experts, among others, hope to come up with sound models to help national policy-makers battle unemployment, they cannot ignore the Asia's current indicators because of the role that economic growth plays in creating jobs.

The Asian Development Bank predicts that the region's economy will grow by only 1-1.5 percent this year, a result of Japan's recession and low growth in the US economy in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington. "Without growth, it will be difficult to make headway on employment," said Chamberlin.

But Chambers says Asian officials can factor dire economic forecasts into their plans: "It is a way to alert decision-makers to avoid mistakes made during and after the 1997 crisis, like taking decisions adverse to youth and not paying attention to the way they were affected."

(Inter Press Service)