The Youth Gap in Employment: An Emerging Crisis before the G20

The history of Ankara may serve as exemplar for this year's G20 leaders—it was a town of little importance in the early 1900s, and in 50 years it had become an economic powerhouse. As growth slows throughout the Eurozone and much of Asia, some G20 leaders may look to the past of Ankara for guidance. However, a more important and alarming lesson from Ankara can be found in the present: according to a joint report by the United Nations and the Turkish Employment Organization, Ankara has a youth unemployment rate of 26.1 percent, one of the highest in the country. Ankara is not the only region plagued by youth unemployment. Recent reports indicate that the entirety of Turkey is in a crisis of youth unemployment and poverty. In the three months between February and June this year, youth unemployment rocketed from 16.7 percent to 18.9 percent - an increase of 1.9 percentage points. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) announced in May that Turkey was home to some of the highest income inequality in the organization, with a poverty rate of nearly 20. In comparison, the average for an OECD nation was just over 11 percent. Youth were revealed to be the worst effected by this rampant inequality, with Turkey having the highest poverty rate for children in the entire supranational league. It was under the leadership of President Erdoğan's AKP party that Turkey managed to recover from a crippling financial crisis and recession in 2001. Erdoğan was even able to help Turkey weather the 2008 global financial crisis, with Turkey being slated as one of the prime investment spots in the world. Recently, however, an over-reliance on foreign investment, foreign exchange pressure, and short-term economic measures like loose monetary policy have left a bleak economic outlook. Turkey's economy is on a downward spiral, and the youth are facing the worst of the consequences. The most visible indicator of Turkey's youth dire economic state has been the major bouts of discontent within the country. Two summers ago, thousands of young people took part in the Gezi Park protests, marking the strongest challenge to date of Erdoğan's ten year rule. While the central concerns of the protest were the increasingly autocratic rule of Erdoğan, the dwindling economic opportunities for the country's youth were major factors in the demonstrations. Instead of attempting to create financial policy to address the economic inequality, Erdoğan has repeatedly explained his desire to cultivate a “pious generation,” and opined that “this country’s youth are not the vandals at Gezi.” In this year's parliamentary elections, the ruling AKP party lost its majority in parliament for the first time since 2002 - and the youth seemed to have played a vital role Erdoğan’s AKP party's downfall. According to an opinion poll conducted right before the election, only 29.5 percent of voters below the age of 23 backed the AKP. The leftist Kurdish-majority Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) made major gains with the backing of the youth, collecting 13 percent of the total votes, and receiving the support of 23.8 percent of youth. This year's election results are an undeniable clarion call to address the plight of Turkey's youth. Turkey isn't alone in this growing youth unemployment predicament; it's one that all of the G20 have to wrestle with. As a result of the global financial and economic crisis, the unemployment rate for youth rose substantially in most G20 countries – notably, France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States – and still has not returned to pre-crisis levels. An even greater problem is rampant inactivity, where young people are not engaged in education or training and risk social or economic exclusion. In countries like South Africa, Indonesia, and Turkey, inactivity rates reach over 30 percent of youths. Finally, youth in G20 countries often find jobs of poor quality, thus compromising their future career prospects. Youth are often forced to take up employment with limited labour market stability, social protection, opportunities for training, and career progression. While youth unemployment has garnered headlines in the Eurozone, it's a latent force across the globe, from South America to Asia. G20 leaders will have to work together to find some way to disarm this ticking time bomb within many of the developing economies. Key to the youth employment dilemma has been creating better mechanisms for students transitioning into the work force. One of the prime experts in this area has been Germany, which has developed a long-standing dual system that couples strong vocational education with traditional academic education. Creating specific measures to support apprentices and strengthening vocational education routes needs to be a primary goal of the G20 countries. On a more basic level, countries can support education programs by raising the compulsory age of schooling. However, when it comes to the faltering Turkey, the solutions may need to be more complex. Speaking with Ural Aküzüm, founding chairperson of the Ari Movement, one of the largest non-partisan youth movements in Turkey, he explained: "The rate of youth unemployment in Turkey is more than twice the world average according to ILO numbers. Turkey needs a new approach and policy on education sector with a digital vision. The dynamic Turkish youth is very open minded on digital innovations and policy makers should encourage them on software development and digital production with a new mid-term education policy." Capitalizing on a new digital economy is the kind of innovations that developing G20 countries around the world will need in the 21st century. Hopefully, the backdrop of Ankara will serve as a vital reminder to the G20 leaders that the current course needs to be corrected. The uneasy status of youth employment around the world is forming the brittle foundations of our world economy, and must be addressed.   Photo by Selahattin Sonmez, edited by Dsmurat. Via Wikimedia Commons.