Euro-zone youth unemployment will remain elevated for at least the next half-decade, the International Labor Organization said Tuesday, forecasting a small reduction in the jobless rate will come from young people withdrawing from the labor market instead of stronger hiring activity.
The Geneva-based agency of the United Nations projects that 15-to-24 year-olds in the 17-member economic bloc will face jobless rates of nearly 22% in 2013 that will dip modestly to 21.4% in 2017. In the U.S., youth unemployment is forecast to fall from 17.4% this year to 13.3% in 2017.
Long-term youth unemployment has long-term consequences for young people and for businesses, according to the ILO and other labor market experts.
I’d love to know how the U.S. rate of unemployment in that age bracket will fall 4 percent when Obama just signed off on work permits for 1.7 million illegal immigrant youth.
We haven’t seen any signs of that happening in California’s Merced County, where my wife and I live. Our unemployment rate among people in this age group averages 22.5%, and it’s not getting any better.