A third of the 1.1 billion young people worldwide between the ages of 15 and 24 are unemployed or have a job bringing less than $2 a day, a report by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) said on Sunday, according to Reuters. And as the global population swells, the situation is set to get worse, especially in volatile corners of sub-Saharan Africa, South-East Asia and the Middle East and North Africa, according to the report released in Geneva. "Despite increased economic growth, the inability of economies to create enough decent and productive jobs is hitting the world's young especially hard," ILO chief Juan Somavia said. Figures compiled by the United Nations agency showed that younger people were three times more likely to be unemployed than those over the age of 24 -- with 13.5 percent of the total without a job compared with only 4.5 percent of older workers. According to the report, called "Global Employment Trends for Youth," young people account for 44 percent of the world's total unemployed even though they make up only 25 percent of the working-age population. The overall unemployment rate for youth has been on a steady rise since 1995, climbing from 12.3 percent of the total of job-seekers in 1995 to 13.5 per cent last year.
