Headline Oct 11, 2015/ ''' SCARRING -*JOBLESS*- YOUTH "'

''' SCARRING -*JOBLESS*- YOUTH "'

YOUNG PEOPLE/YOUNG STUDENTS    -have long had a raw deal in the labour market. But two things make the problem more pressing now.

The financial crisis and its aftermath had an unusually big effect on them. Many employers sack the newest hires first, so a recession raises youth joblessness disproportionately.

In Greece and Spain over a sixth of the young population are without a job. The number of young people in OECD is almost a third higher than in 2007.

Second, the emerging economies that have the largest and the fastest growing populations of young people also have the worst-run labour markets. Almost half of the world's young people live in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Siri Lanka, the Middle East and Africa.

These countries and regions also have the highest share of young people out of work or in the informal sector. The population of  15- to -24 years olds in Africa is expected to rise more than a third, to  275 million, by 2025.

In rich countries with generous welfare states this imposes a heavy burden on tax payers. One estimate suggests that, in 2011, the economic loss from disengaged young people in Europe amounted to $153 billion, or more than 1% of GDP.

And failure to employ the young not only lowers growth today. It also threatens it tomorrow.

A clutch of academic papers, based mainly on American statistics, shows that people have who begin their careers without work are likely to have lower wages and greater odds in in future joblessness than those who don't.

A wage penalty of up to 20%, lasting for around 20 years, is common. The scarring seems to worsen the fact with the length of joblessness and is handed down to the next generation, too.

The overall ageing of the population might blunt this effect by increasing demand for labour. But Japan's youth joblessness, which surged after its financial crisis in the early  1990s, have stayed high despite a fast fall in the overall workforce.

A large class of  hikikomori  live with their parents, rarely leaving home and withdrawn from the workforce.

Economists know much less about  ''scarring''  in poor countries. A big study by Richard Freeman of Harvard University and Wei Chi and Hongbin Li of Tsinghua .University suggested any impact of joblessness on young Chinese earnings disappear after three years.

But studies elsewhere have reported more troubling results. An analysis of the labour market a decade after Indonesia's financial crisis in 1997 suggested that young people who lost their jobs then were less likely to be in the workforce-

And if they were, to have only informal jobs. A study of Argentina and Brazil found that young people who joined the labour force during a recession fared systematically worse as adults.

The damage may be less in dynamic economies and greatest in stagnant ones where unemployment comes in  long bouts  as in the swathe of countries around the Mediterranean. Spain, France, Italy and Greece have some of the highest youth joblessness in the rich world.

Morocco, Egypt and other North African and Middle Eastern countries have among the worst rates in the emerging world. Though they are at the different stages of development, these countries all suffer disproportionately from employment's main curse:

*Low growth, clogged labour markets and a mismatch between education and work*.

The Honour and Serving of the ''Joblessness Operational Research''  continues. Thank you for reading and sharing forward.

With respectful dedication to all the  Jobless Youth/Students in the world. See Ya all on !WOW!  -the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

''' Turning Grey '''

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless