International Labour Organization (ILO): global employment trends for youth 2026, focus on Italy
The 2026 edition of the International Labour Organization (ILO) "Global Employment Trends for Youth: Back to the future" finds that the tentative and short-lived recovery in youth labour markets that followed the COVID-19 pandemic has stopped. Slowing global economic growth, diminished job creation, geopolitical tensions and rapid technological change are combining to make the transition from school to decent work increasingly difficult for many young people.
After reaching its lowest level in more than two decades in 2023, the global unemployment rate of young people aged 15 to 24 edged up to 12.4 per cent in 2025, equalling 67 million unemployed young people worldwide. The global share of young people not in employment, education or training (NEET) is also again increasing, reaching 20 per cent in 2025 from 19.7 per cent in 2023. This translated into an increase of 9 million more young people in NEET status since 2023, bringing the total to 257 million in 2025.
These difficulties on job entry for young people have been almost universal over the past couple of years. The youth unemployment rate rose between 2023 and 2025 in eight of the eleven subregions, as well as in high-income, lower-middle-income and low-income countries. The largest increases were in Northern Africa, Northern America and Northern, Southern and Western Europe.
The growing hardship of labour market entry in high-income countries is a relatively recent phenomenon. Northern, Southern and Western Europe saw an increase in the youth unemployment rate, with the rate remaining at 15 per cent in 2025. Of the 29 countries in the subregion, 20 saw a worsening in the capacity of their economies to absorb young talent and offer them decent job opportunities. The situation has worsened in recent years for young people who finished school or training at the secondary level and for university graduates.
In Italy, the youth unemployment rate stood at 18.9 per cent in July 2026, up from 18.7 per cent in June, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT).
Gender gaps also remain entrenched. In 2025, more than two out of every three youth in NEET status (Not in Employment, Education or Training) were women. At 27.4 per cent, the NEET rate of young women was more than double that of young men, at 13.1 per cent. Persistent barriers related to unpaid care responsibilities, discrimination and limited access to quality employment continue to constrain the economic participation of young women, particularly in the Arab States, Northern Africa and Southern Asia.
The report also examines artificial intelligence (AI) and the erosion of middle-skilled jobs for youth. It estimates that 6.1 per cent of jobs currently held by young people aged 15 to 29 fall in the categories most exposed to AI and most at risk to some level of AI-task or job replacement. If only 10 per cent of the jobs exposed to AI were to disappear in full, this would translate into 5.6 million employed youth facing unemployment, changing jobs or exiting the labour force.
The ILO calls for integrated youth employment strategies, including creating employment opportunities, quality education, traineeship and lifelong learning, effective employment services, social protection and rights at work. The report also calls for a human-centred approach to AI governance. It concludes that the central challenge is not only to generate more jobs for young people, but to ensure that these jobs provide the security, dignity and opportunities that underpin successful transitions to adulthood.