Employment status

The average is that 1 out 3 (33%) young people say that there are 2 persons working in their family.  33% says two working members and 24.8% one working member.  In Europe the percentage of families with 2 to 3 working members is higher (66.2%) compared with Asia and the Middle East (55.8%), Latin America (50.5%) and Africa (46.9%).

The data reveals that the family (50.6%) remains the strongest economic form of protection compared with the very weak role of the State (2.8%).  This is true not only for the unemployed but also those who have work. 

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40.1% of the unemployed respondents had been unemployed for less than 6 months, about 15% of them between 6 months and 1 year.  23% had been unemployed for more than 2 years.  This figure is a bit high.  There are a high percentage of young people in Africa and Asia that had been unemployed for more than 2 years, 28.3 % and 27.6 respectively.  There is a huge number of Latin American young people who had been unemployed for up to two years (82.8%).  In Europe the majority or 54.3% had been unemployed for less than 6 months. 

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Almost half (47.4%) of young people answered that their salaries are not enough for them to live on taking into account the cost of living in their home country. The percentage reaches 70.4% if one also takes into account those for whom the wage "is not always sufficient". The situation is critical on all the continents, even if the rate of those for whom the wage is "more than sufficient" is higher significantly in Europe 15.2% against 2.6% in Africa, 7.0% in the Asia and the Middle East and 3.7% in Latin America.  

The majority of the interviewed young workers have only one job (65.9%).  Those who replied yes, occasionally, often or always, accounts for 34.1%.  The figure for those who had one job is noticeably low in Africa (53.3%) compared with Latin America (64.2%), Europe (71.1%) and Asia and the Middle East (73%).  There is also a high percentage of young workers in Africa who do secondary jobs either occasionally or on a permanent basis.

 As to status, more than half of the respondents are concentrated in the employee category (50.8%).  Being a worker follows with 37.4 %.  The percentage of worker and unskilled employees accounts for 66.1% (worker - 37.4% and unskilled employee - 28.7%).  The skilled workers accounts for 22.1%.  

Looking at the continents, the unskilled employees in Latin America account for the majority of the respondents (55.3%).  Africa, Asia and the Middle East data shows that many are in the worker category. 

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For all the continents, the services sector is prevalent (80.1%), followed by the Industry and Crafts sector with 12% and 4.1% respectively while Agriculture is at 3.8%. The regional figures show a more homogenous response agreeing with the world figures.

The data is indicative of the changing labour landscape; the labour market has now shifted from Agriculture to industry and now to services. The shift could mean less dirty and less physically demanding work but it could also mean more specialization which entails a lot of preparation and schooling.

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With regards to employment status on a world level 28.6% occupy a continuous and stable employment (permanent employee). Those in temporary, precarious or undeclared work are 19.5%. The rate of unemployment is not negligible. Working students account for 14.5% of the total.