Southeast Asia & the Pacific remains a global hotspot for youth–adult unemployment disparities: ILO

Even where the gap is improving, labour market discouragement, employment quality, and unpaid care duties continue to limit young people’s prospects.

Young people continue to face a far greater risk of unemployment than adults. Between 2023 and 2025, the global youth unemployment rate rose from 12.3 to 12.4%, while the adult rate declined from 3.7 to 3.6%. As a result, young people were 3.43 times more likely than adults to be unemployed in 2025, up from a ratio of 3.36 in 2023.

This widening disparity, as indicated in the International Labour Organisation's recent Global Employment Trends for Youth 2026: Back to the future, points to a labour market that is becoming less able to absorb new entrants. The challenge is particularly stark in Southeast Asia & the Pacific and South Asia, where young people’s unemployment risk was between five and seven times that of adults. Southeast Asia & the Pacific recorded a slight improvement in this ratio between 2023 and 2025, but the gap remains among the largest worldwide.

A narrower youth-to-adult unemployment gap indicates a positive sign, but it alone cannot capture whether young people are accessing decent work. Labour-market discouragement, poor-quality employment, and unpaid care responsibilities also shape young people’s opportunities and transitions into work.

Youth unemployment on the rise

Global youth unemployment has edged upwards after reaching its lowest level of the 21^st century in 2023. The rate increased to 12.4% in 2025, reversing part of the post-pandemic improvement amid subdued economic growth and growing global uncertainty.

As shared further, an estimated 67mn young people were unemployed in 2025 – around 2mn more than in 2023. The number of unemployed young people grew faster than the youth labour force over the period, contributing to the increase in the global rate.

The rise affected both young men and women as, in 2025, the unemployment rate stood at 12.1% for young women and 12.6% for young men. Although young women continued to have a lower unemployment rate globally, their rate increased slightly more than that of young men between 2023 and 2025.

Worsening youth unemployment in most subregions

Youth unemployment trends varied markedly across subregions, but conditions deteriorated or showed little change in most of them. Between 2023 and 2025, youth unemployment rates worsened or remained broadly unchanged in eight of the 11 subregions.

North Africa and North America experienced the largest increases, with youth unemployment rising by nearly two percentage points to 22.6% and 9.8%, respectively. Rates also increased in the Arab States, East Asia, North, South and West Europe, and South Asia.

Meanwhile, improvements were recorded in East Europe, Latin America & the Caribbean, and Central and West Asia.

When compared further, the Arab States recorded the highest youth unemployment rates in the year (26.2%), followed by North Africa (22.6%). On the other hand, North America, Southeast Asia & the Pacific, and sub-Saharan Africa recorded the lowest rates of below 10%. To this point, however, the ILO cautioned that comparatively low unemployment rates should not automatically be interpreted as positive labour market outcomes: they may coexist with rising inactivity, discouragement or poor-quality work.

Certain youth struggle more in the job search

According to the report, the transition from education into a first job is becoming more difficult in many labour markets. In fact, in 18 countries, the unemployment rate among young people aged 20–24, which is an age group closely associated with first-time entry into the working world, had reached a decade-high level, excluding the pandemic period. In most of these countries, the unemployment gap between young adults and prime-age workers had also widened.

Globally, first-time jobseekers accounted for 45.1% of unemployed people aged 20–29 in the most recent period, compared with 43.4% around 2016. This suggests that a growing share of unemployment among young adults is concentrated among those still seeking an initial foothold in the labour market.

The challenge is most acute in South Asia, where almost eight in 10 unemployed young people aged 20–29 were first-time jobseekers in the latest period.

The share also increased in East Europe, Latin America & the Caribbean, North America, Southeast Asia & the Pacific, and sub-Saharan Africa.

Overall, the report noted, these patterns underline the need for stronger support for school-to-work transitions and for labour markets that can offer young people a meaningful first opportunity.

Other notable insights revealed in the report include:

• A growing number of young people are outside employment, education or training (NEET). The global youth NEET rate rose from 19.7% in 2023 to 20.0% in 2025, bringing the total to more than 257mn young people.
• Young women face a disproportionate risk of exclusion, with more than two thirds of young people in NEET status were women in 2025. The NEET rate among young women, at 27.4%, was more than twice that of young men (13.1%).
• Employment growth is not keeping pace with the youth population. Although youth employment reached 476mn in 2025, which is the highest level since 2013, the youth employment-to-population ratio fell to 37.1% as the youth population grew faster than employment.
• The quality and security of available jobs remain a central concern as many young people enter work that do not match their qualifications or aspirations, or lack the adequate labour and social protection.
• Middle-skilled entry-level jobs are becoming less available. The erosion of these roles is particularly troubling for young people leaving secondary school or technical training, who have traditionally relied on them as an entry point into the labour market.
• The outlook remains challenging, as youth NEET rates are projected to rise further through 2027, and employment gains are expected to remain modest relative to the expanding global youth population.

READ MORE: New SG Youth Plan to equip young people with early career exposure, new skills outside the classroom, and expanded mentoring support 

Infographics / Global Employment Trends for Youth 2026: Back to the future, ILO