Youth unemployment rose to 12.4% in 2025, ILO says

The global youth unemployment rate rose to 12.4% in 2025, up from 12.3% in 2024, the International Labour Organization said in its Global Employment Trends for Youth 2026 report.

The UN labour agency said that was equivalent to 67 million unemployed people aged 15 to 24. It also said the share of young people not in employment, education or training rose slightly to 20%, affecting more than 257 million people.

The ILO said the recovery in youth labour markets after the Covid-19 pandemic had stalled. It cited slowing global growth, weaker job creation, geopolitical tensions and rapid technological change as factors making the move from school to decent work harder for many young people.

Some of the biggest increases in youth unemployment were in higher-income countries, the report said. At the sub-regional level, the largest rises were in northern Africa, northern America and northern, southern and western Europe.

The ILO said youth unemployment remained highest in the Arab states and northern Africa, at 26.2% and 22.6% respectively.

The report said anxiety among young people was high as artificial intelligence changes the jobs market, but ILO official Sukti Dasgupta said it was too soon to speak directly about causality between AI and rising youth unemployment. She said “the coincidence is quite real” and called for more research.

The ILO expects the global youth unemployment rate to flatline at 12.3% in 2026 and 2027.