(15 March 2012)

BUDAPEST (ILO News) – The ILO is organizing national consultations in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Ukraine which will serve as a platform for young people, policy-makers and the social partners to exchange views on the national youth employment situation and to share good practice. These events will also raise awareness on the urgency of promoting decent work for youth in Central and Eastern Europe.

75 million youth worldwide are currently unemployed and more than 150 million young people are living on less than USD 1.25 a day. The European numbers are also alarming: one in five youth are unemployed in Central and South-Eastern Europe and young people are experiencing unemployment rates nearly double those among older workers in the majority of European countries. The ILO has warned that this situation risks creating a “lost generation” and is a threat to social cohesion.

For this reason, youth employment will be the main theme of the annual International Labour Conference in June, and the ILO wants to hear young people and reflect their ideas and experience in the debate. In the run-up to the annual Conference, the ILO is consulting young people from Beirut to Bangkok, from Lima to Lusaka, during March’s “Youth Employment Month”.

The Central and Eastern European consultations will start in Ukraine with a round table discussion on 23 March 2012 in Kiev. Presentations will give an overview of youth employment trends in Ukraine and will introduce results of recent research on matching migrant workers’ skills to the labour market needs of their home and destination countries. The round table discussion will also host a forum of young leaders and activists engaged in the promotion of youth employment. Four local youth organizations and the European Union Delegation will be invited in addition to government officials and Ukrainian workers’ and employers’ organizations.

The event in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia will take place on 29 March 2012 in Skopje with a special focus on developing a National Youth Employment Action Plan for the country. In Serbia, a conference will be organized on youth employment with more than one hundred participants including other UN agencies on 26 April 2012 in Belgrade.

The world-wide national consultations will culminate in a major Youth Forum in Geneva in May, with some one hundred young people from employers’, workers’ and youth organizations from across the world taking part. The key issues discussed at the Forum will be presented at the International Labour Conference in June which brings together representatives from governments, employers and workers.