The global recession has caused unemployment rates to rise almost everywhere, and for almost every group. But it was particularly hard on young people, whose unemployment rates rose much faster than those of adults.

Just how badly young people were affected appears to have depended partly on how severe the local downturn was and partly on local labor practices and laws. Some of the hardest-hit young people were in countries with the most protections for older workers.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which includes 29 mostly rich countries, recently released a study of unemployment among young people.

“There are currently nearly 15 million youth unemployed in the O.E.C.D. area, about four million more than at the end of 2007,” stated the study, written by Stefano Scarpetta, Anne Sonnet and Thomas Manfredi, all based at the organization’s headquarters in Paris.

The largest unemployment rate for young people - defined as ages 15 to 24 in most countries and 16 to 24 in others - was in Spain, where in the final quarter of last year the unemployment rate was 39.6 percent, more than double the 19.1 percent of two years earlier. For adults, the rate rose to 16.9 percent from 7.4 percent.

Spain, like many European countries, provides protection for those with permanent jobs, a fact that led some employers to expand the use of temporary jobs, which provide fewer benefits. “Most of the job losses were recorded among workers on temporary jobs, many of whom are youth,” the study stated.

The unemployment rates show the proportion of people in the labor force who do not have jobs. For young people, those still in school are excluded from the base. But so are those who have left school but are not trying to find work, even if that is because they think such an effort would be useless.

The exception to the trend was in Germany, where unemployment among young people actually declined, to 10.3 percent, over the twoyear period. The study attributed that in part to “a rather successful apprenticeship system that ensures a relatively smooth transition from school to work for most youth.”

In the United States, the rate rose to 19.1 percent, from 11.1 percent. That left America with a little bit higher rate than the average of 18.4 percent in the 29 countries.

For most people, the study said, the effects of youthful unemployment are temporary, and they later get jobs that provide adequate incomes. “But for disadvantaged youth lacking basic education, a failure in their first experience on the labor market is often difficult to make up and may expose them to long-lasting scarring effects.”

The study praised efforts being made in some countries to provide training for young people who were out of school and out of work, but cautioned that the training had to provide the young people with marketable skills.


By FLOYD NORRIS


under 25 and looking for a job
unemployment among young people in the fourth quarter in the 29 countries that make up the organization for economic cooperation and development.
Figures are for people ages 15 to 24 in most countries, but for people 16 to 24 in Iceland, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Britain
and the United States. The rates show unemployment among young people out of school and in the labor force. People
without a job but not seeking one are not considered to be in the labor force.

Source: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development