Headline, February17, 2014

''' JACK -JILL- :> !!! 

JOBLESS JAMBOREE !'''

Jack and Jill went up the hill

To fetch a pail of........ water.

The well drew dry.?.............

Which made them cry.!......

And they both came...........

Tumbling after....................!

Like Jack and Jill, Young people have long had a raw deal in the labour market. Two critical things make the problem more pressing now. The financial crisis and its aftermath had an usually big effect on them.

Many employers sack the newest hires first, so a recession raises youth joblessness disproportionately. Only so recently, In Greece and Spain over a sixth of the young population are without a job.

The number of young people out of work in the OECD is almost a third higher than in 2007.

Second, the emerging economies that have the largest and fastest growing populations of young people also have the "worst-run labour markets".

Almost half of the world's young people live in South Asia, the Middle East and Africa. They also have the highest share of young people out of work in the informal sector.

The population of  15 -to- 24 year olds in Africa is expected to rise by more than a third, to 275m, by 2025.

In rich countries with generous welfare states this imposes a heavy burden on tax payers. One estimate suggests that, in 2011, the economic loss from disengaged young people in Europe amounted to $153 billion, or more than 1% of GDP.

And failure to employ the young not only lowers growth today. It also threatens it tomorrow.

A clutch of academic papers, based mainly on American statistics, shows that people who begin their careers without work are likely to have lower wages and greater odds of future joblessness than those who don't.

A wage penalty of up to  20%, lasting for around  20 years, is common. The scarring seems to worsen fast with the length of joblessness and is handed down to the next generation, too.

The overall ageing of the population  might blunt this effect by increasing demand for labour. But Japan's youth joblessness, which surged after its financial crisis in the early 1990s, has stayed high despite a fast in the overall workforce.

A large class of   hikikomori  live with their parents, rarely leaving home and withdrawn from the workforce.

Economists know much less about   'scarring''  in the poor countries. A big study by Richard Freeman of Harvard University and Wei Chi  and Hongbin Li of Tsinghua University suggested any impact of joblessness on young Chinese earnings disappear after three years.

But studies elsewhere have reported more troubling results. An analysis of the labour market a decade after Indonesia's financial crisis in 1997 suggested that the young people who lost their jobs then were less likely to be in the workforce, and if they were, to have only informal jobs.

A study of Argentina and Brazil found that young people who joined the labour force during a recession fared systematically worse as adults.

The damage may be less in dynamic economies and greatest in stagnant ones where unemployment comes comes in long bouts  -as in the swathe of countries around the Mediterranean.

Spain, France, Italy and Greece have some of the highest  ''youth joblessness''  in the rich world.

Morocco, Egypt and other North African and Middle Eastern countries have among the  worst rates  in the emerging world. Though they are at the different stages of development, these countries all suffer disproportionately from employments main curses:

Low growth, clogged labour markets and a  ''mismatch between education and work.''

'''The stark truth and lesson is: what matters is not just number of years of education people get, but its content.

This means expanding the study of  science and technology  and closing the gap between the world of education and the world of work   -for example by vocational and technical education and by forging closer relationships between companies and schools.

Closing the gap will also require a change of attitude from governments, businesses and Growth!!!'''

With respectful dedication to the  Billions of Jobless students   and youth in the world. See Ya all on !WOW!  -the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

''' Freely Sharing :  In All  Knowledge'''

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless