UN labour agency reports rise in global youth unemployment amid AI risks

The International Labour Organization published its Employment and Social Trends 2026 report on January 14, revealing that while the headline global unemployment rate is projected to hold steady at 4.9% in 2026, youth unemployment hit 12.4% in 2025. That’s roughly 2.5 times the overall rate, and the gap isn’t narrowing. The NEET problem is bigger than the unemployment number The more alarming figure isn’t youth unemployment itself. It’s the 260 million young people worldwide who are not in employment, education, or training, a group the ILO categorizes as NEET. That represents about 20% of the global youth population, meaning one in five young people is essentially sidelined from both the workforce and any pathway toward entering it. In low-income countries, the situation is significantly worse. NEET rates average 27.9%, meaning nearly three in ten young people in those economies have no job and aren’t building skills toward getting one. ILO Director-General Gilbert F. Houngbo didn’t mince words about the disconnect between the stable top-line numbers and the reality on the ground. The resilient headline unemployment figures are misleading, masking significant deficits in decent wo...