The International Labour Organization (ILO) released its Global Employment Trends for Youth 2026: Back to the Future (August 2026). The report draws on ILO modelled estimates (November 2025), country-level data from the ILOSTAT YouthSTATS database and an analysis of global news coverage on youth employment from April 2023 to April 2026.
Human Level’s Take:
- Where have the entry-level jobs gone? For young people, the labour market recovery that followed the COVID-19 pandemic has come to a halt. The global youth unemployment rate rose to 12.4% in 2025, equal to 67 million young people, while the rate for adults fell.
- The challenge goes beyond the number of jobs to their quality. Half of young workers aged 15 to 29 are in informal employment, rising to nearly nine in ten in low- and lower-middle-income countries, where most young people work outside the reach of social protection and income stability.
- Young women face entrenched barriers: more than two in three young people not in employment, education or training are women. The ILO links this to unpaid care responsibilities, discrimination and limited access to quality employment.
- Where youth employment is shrinking, we are also seeing a ‘hollowing out’ of middle-skilled jobs, mainly in clerical, sales, trades and machine operator roles. Some of these overlap with the occupations most exposed to AI. In an ILO scenario where 10% of AI-exposed youth jobs disappeared, 5.6 million young workers would face unemployment, a job change or exit from the labour force.
- Hiring practices are part of the picture. Entry-level roles in the most AI-exposed occupations increasingly ask for skills traditionally associated with experienced workers, and the ILO points to literature on discrimination embedded in algorithmic recruitment, an area the EU AI Act classes as high-risk.
- The ILO calls on governments and social partners to renew youth employment strategies built on four pillars: creating employment opportunities, preparing young people through education and apprenticeships, facilitating labour market transitions and ensuring inclusion through social protection and rights at work. The report also notes that enterprise decisions on AI adoption, such as whether to reduce staff, retrain them or freeze hiring, will shape whether exposure translates into job loss for young people.
- What can companies do with the findings from this report? Employers can start by reviewing recruitment practices, entry-level requirements and AI-enabled recruitment tools for bias, offering quality apprenticeships and intergenerational mentoring, engaging with younger workers and in particular adopting practices to support young women’s career progression.
Some key takeaways:
- A stalled recovery in youth labour markets: The report finds that the recovery in youth labour markets after the COVID-19 pandemic has come to a halt. Slowing economic growth, diminished job creation, geopolitical tensions and rapid technological change are making the transition from school to decent work more difficult for many young people. After reaching its lowest level in more than two decades in 2023, the global unemployment rate of young people aged 15 to 24 rose to 12.4% in 2025, equal to 67 million unemployed young people. The share of young people not in employment, education or training (NEET) also rose, from 19.7% in 2023 to 20% in 2025, bringing the total to 257 million. This is nine million more young people in NEET status than in 2023. Youth unemployment rates worsened or remained flat in eight of the 11 subregions examined by the ILO, with the largest increases in Northern Africa and Northern America. Over the same period, the adult unemployment rate fell from 3.7% to 3.6%, raising the ratio of youth-to-adult unemployment rates to 3.4. The ILO notes that labour market entry is also becoming harder in high-income countries: in Northern America, the youth unemployment rate rose from 8.3% in 2023 to 9.8% in 2025, and 20 of the 29 countries in Northern, Southern and Western Europe saw a worsening in their capacity to absorb young people into decent work.
- Gender gaps, insecure work and the erosion of middle-skilled jobs: In 2025, more than two in three young people in NEET status were women, and the NEET rate of young women (27.4%) was more than double that of young men (13.1%). The ILO links this to barriers related to unpaid care responsibilities, discrimination and limited access to quality employment, particularly in the Arab States, Northern Africa and Southern Asia. Job quality remains a concern: 50.8% of young people aged 15 to 29 were in informal employment in 2025 (or nearest year), while 45.6% of young employees held an informal job. Nearly nine in ten young workers in low- and lower-middle-income countries are in informal employment, outside the reach of social protection and job or income stability, and two in three young adults aged 25 to 29 in these countries are in insecure work. Where youth employment is shrinking, middle-skilled occupations are the most affected, including clerical support, service and sales, craft and trades, and plant and machine operation. Some of these overlap with the occupations most exposed to AI. The report estimates that 6.1% of jobs held by young people aged 15 to 29 are among those most exposed to AI, with shares ranging from 14.3% in high-income countries to 0.9% in low-income countries. If 10% of these jobs were to disappear, 5.6 million young workers would face unemployment, a job change or exit from the labour force. The report notes that enterprise decisions on AI adoption, such as whether to reduce staff, retrain them or freeze hiring, will shape whether exposure translates into job loss. It also identifies ‘job experience inflation’ as a barrier, citing PwC findings that in the most AI-exposed occupations, more than half of new skills in entry-level job postings were skills traditionally associated with experienced workers.
- Adaptive policies and the role of employers: The ILO calls on governments and social partners to renew integrated youth employment strategies built on four pillars: creating employment opportunities, preparing young people through education and apprenticeships, facilitating labour market transitions and ensuring inclusion through social protection and rights at work. It also sets out adaptive responses to future-of-work disruptions, including a human-centred approach to AI governance, skills that combine technical competencies with social and cognitive capabilities, stronger lifelong learning systems and social protection that covers all forms of work. On recruitment, the report notes that the EU AI Act treats the use of AI systems in human resource management as high-risk and points to literature on discrimination embedded in algorithmic recruitment across sourcing, screening, interviewing and selection. For employers, the report finds that engaging and listening to younger workers and investing in well-being programmes can raise productivity and prevent turnover. It highlights intergenerational workplace mentorships and quality apprenticeships, which, under ILO Recommendation No. 208, include written contracts, qualified mentors, fair remuneration and social protection. To support young women, the report sets out measures including increasing the share of women supervisors, investing in human resources management that supports women’s career development and eliminating discriminatory recruitment practices. It also calls on governments, employers, trade unions and civil society to invest in raising young workers’ awareness of their rights at work.
