Neet -- or a lost generation?

The number of young people without work in the world has grown by four million since 2007. Millions more “disconnected youth” have given up the job search altogether. The global youth jobless rate this year remains stuck at “crisis peak” levels and won't likely come down until at least 2016, the International Labour Organization predicts in a grim outlook on youth employment published this week.  Of chief concern are young people who are neither in employment, nor in education or training – dubbed NEET in many countries. Canada is not immune. The country's unemployment rate for young people is 13.9 per cent and the 15-to-24 age group has seen little employment gains in the past several years.  Broken down by province, the highest youth jobless rate is in Newfoundland, at 20.2 per cent as of April (according to Statistics Canada's CANSIM data). Nova Scotia's jobless rate for young people is 19.6 per cent – the highest in a decade. Ontario's rate is 16.4 per cent.  (There are almost a million (904,000) NEETs in Canada.)


Source: The Globe and Mail, May 23rd.