Jobless youth will suffer long-standing impacts from the Covid-19 pandemic, International Labour Organisation has said.
Similarly, the young people who have lost schooling following school closures in a bid to counter the spread of Covid-19, will face lasting effects.
“Young people who have lost jobs or schooling during the Covid-19 pandemic risk carrying 'scarring effects' throughout their working lives unless governments provide immediate support,” the United Nations agency said.
An ILO poll of 12,000 youths in 112 countries in May showed that more than one in six people under 24 had stopped working during the pandemic.
In Kenya, at least one million people had lost their jobs or had been put on indefinite unpaid leave. A compilation of public data from some of the companies however suggested that the numbers could be higher, especially when casual labourers are factored in.
In its latest report, ILO said that more than 70 per cent of students had seen closures of schools, universities and training centers since the wake of Covid-19.
To counter Covid-19 spread, schools in the country were closed in Mid-March. According to Education CS George Magoha, school reopening is set for January next year depending on the state of Covid-19 .
Following this, ILO has urged governments to help reintegrate jobless youth into labour markets or provide educational training and unemployment insurance benefits.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has a systematic, deep and disproportionate impact on young people,” Sangheon Lee, director of ILO’s employment policy department said in a statement.
Studies on previous crises suggest that young people lacking access to job opportunities when entering the labour market face ongoing consequences throughout their working lives, he said.
He added that young women and youths are among the hardest hit.
“Unless urgent action is taken, young people are likely to suffer severe and long-standing impacts from the pandemic. We believe there is a genuine risk of the ‘lockdown generation’ who actually will be scarred throughout their working lives,” Lee said.
In the same poll, 17 per cent of young jobless people reported suffering from anxiety and depression, about double the rate as those in employment.
“Even for those who have remained employed after the onset of the pandemic, their working hours fell by nearly a quarter and two out of five young people reported a reduction in their incomes,” he said.
