Youth unemployment will remain in the shadows unless we address patchy and ambiguous data, writes Commonwealth Youth Affairs Director Katherine Ellis in an opinion piece for The Guardian.
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Youth unemployment is often referred to as a 'timebomb', and yet so little attention has been paid to when exactly time will run out. According to the International Labour Organisation, global youth unemployment is over 13%, affecting 74.5 million young people.
Other estimates put the ratio at about 19%. However, the truth is we simply do not know how many young people are out of work. We have an idea, but the data is patchy and complex.
Part of the problem with the frequently quoted ILO data is that it only covers 15- to 24-year-olds who have been "actively seeking" work for the past four weeks, and excludes any young person who has worked even one hour, as well as the many who have given up searching altogether.
