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Context

• India experienced severe working-hour and employment losses in 2020 and 2021, and Indian youth employment deteriorated in 2021 compared with the 2020 situation, according to the Global Employment Trends for Youth 2022 report recently released by the International Labour Organisation.

Other Findings of the Report

Pandemic Challenges

• The pandemic has worsened the numerous labour market challenges facing those aged between 15 and 24. Youngsters in this age group experienced a much higher percentage loss in employment than adults since early 2020.

Status of unemployment

• The total global number of unemployed youth is estimated to reach 73 million in 2022, a slight improvement from 2021 (75 million), but still six million above the pre-pandemic level of 2019,” the report said.
• In India, the report said surveys conducted by the Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy show that the youth employment participation rate declined by 0.9 percentage points over the first nine months of 2021 relative to its value in 2020, while it increased by 2 percentage points for adults over the same time period.
• It also warns that the unemployment rate of young people in the Asia and Pacific region is projected to reach 14.9% in 2022, the same as the global average, although there are important divergences between subregions and countries.

Impact of school closure

• In India, the report added that school closures lasted 18 months and among the 24-crore school-going children, only 8% of such children in rural areas and 23% in urban areas had adequate access to online education.
• Given the deeply unequal access to online resources in developing countries, children from socio-economically disadvantaged families, which are the large majority, had almost no access to education, the report said.
• School closures not only prevented new learning, but also led to the phenomenon of “learning regression”, that is, children forgetting what they had learned earlier.
• In India, 92% of children on average lost at least one foundational ability in language and 82% lost at least one foundational ability in mathematics.

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