Youth Unemployment Rises as Africa Faces Pressure

Global youth unemployment increased to 12.4 per cent in 2025, with 67 million young people aged 15 to 24 unable to find work, as slowing economic growth, weak job creation and rapid technological change make the transition from education to decent work increasingly difficult.

The International Labour Organization  (ILO) , in its Global Employment Trends for Youth 2026: Back to the future report, finds that one in five young people worldwide was not in employment, education or training (NEET) in 2025. 

The 20 per cent rate represents more than 257 million young people, an increase of nine million since 2023. 

Youth unemployment increased between 2023 and 2025 in eight of the world’s 11 subregions, pointing to a broad deterioration in opportunities for young people entering the labour market.

ILO Director-General Gilbert F. Houngbo warned that the consequences extend beyond individual young people.

“A generation that cannot find decent work cannot build its future with confidence,” Houngbo said.

“When young people are locked out of quality employment, countries lose talent, productivity and social cohesion.” 

He said creating decent jobs for young people was not only a social imperative but also one of the smartest investments countries could make. 

The report presents a different picture in sub-Saharan Africa, where the youth unemployment rate was 8.4 per cent in 2025, significantly below the global average of 12.4 per cent. 

However, the ILO cautions that the relatively low unemployment rate should not be interpreted as evidence of healthier youth labour markets. 

Many young people in the region cannot afford to remain unemployed and instead take informal jobs, often without stable incomes, social protection or secure employment. 

Nearly nine in 10 young workers in low- and lower-middle-income countries, many of which are in sub-Saharan Africa, are in informal employment. 

Two in three young adults aged 25 to 29 are also in insecure forms of work, including own-account and temporary paid employment. 

The region’s youth NEET rate stood at 21.6 per cent in 2025, slightly above the global average, meaning that millions of young Africans are neither working nor in education or training.

The ILO projects the number of young people in this situation in sub-Saharan Africa to increase from 55.6 million in 2025 to 58.9 million by 2027. 

The demographic pressure is expected to intensify. Nearly two-thirds of the increase in the world’s youth population is now occurring in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the report. 

Millions of young people are already entering labour markets where the supply of decent jobs is insufficient to absorb them. 

The ILO says this mismatch between population growth and job creation risks increasing competition for existing jobs, discouraging young people from participating in the labour market and, in some cases, encouraging migration in search of opportunities. 

Uganda faces the same structural pressure. The findings are particularly relevant to Uganda, where young people make up a large share of the population.

The ILO says approximately 78 per cent of Uganda’s population is below the age of 35, while youth unemployment and underemployment remain pressing challenges. 

Uganda is also both a country of origin and destination for labour migration, with economic aspirations and limited opportunities among the factors influencing young people’s decisions to seek work elsewhere. 

ILO analysis of African youth labour markets has previously highlighted the difficulties young Ugandans face in the transition from school to work. In a 2023 analysis covering seven African countries, including Uganda, the ILO found that young women in Uganda were about twice as likely as young men to be NEET. NEET (Not in Employment, Education or Training).