The effects of the pandemic on youth unemployment
Steps of Life
Have you ever shared your dreams with someone? Do they have the same dreams as you, or are they different? It is a good time anyway: listening to someone's dreams and imagining what will happen in the future. There is no doubt that everyone has their own dreams and goals to achieve in their lives.
So, how can we succeed in life? Before answering the question, as everyone knows, there are many factors to becoming a successful person. Education is the first step as the main road to take you to your desired life path before you find the shortcuts. Let's get back to the beginning a little bit on how our lives have set on the same path. We have to study at school and university to collect knowledge and create connections with other people. Therefore, it is obviously clear how important the education system's role is, and back then, everyone thinks about applying for jobs as a first step after finishing school.
One Side and Other Side
It is a good opportunity for some students to have accepted jobs after graduation, where it matches their skills, knowledge and succeeds with their goals. On the other hand, the rest of the other young people have almost given up on their ways and stuck with the problems that come into their lives directly and indirectly.
Many young people have finished school or university, and they are unable to find jobs. They have faced issues that their abilities are mismatched with what business needs due to the education system's differences and other complex factors behind this cause.
It seems like it is not a serious problem, but if we look at more details like the rate of this situation called "youth unemployment," It is a global crisis that the governments around the world have to deal with.
Basically, all the solutions have been set to help young people or new graduates who have no jobs by focusing on the education system's effectiveness. To provide the skills that match the labor market needs. The governments have changed education to be more equal and decrease the gaps in the society like wealth inequality. In contrast, if we talk about the situation during the economic downturns, it already shows that it has a huge impact on everything around us.
Even though many new graduates with perfect skills during the economic downturn, it will increase the young unemployed rate anyway. Unfortunately, this year, the COVID-19 pandemic affects everything around the world, including increasing youth unemployment.
Signal of Long Term Attack
The rate of youth unemployment has been increasing day by day after the coronavirus has been spreading around the world. The most important part of the highest rate is that new graduates' plans are impacted by the pandemic and leaving much youth unemployed. Besides, the working college students who have to do part-time jobs are also affected by the pandemic.
The statistic of ILO (international labour organizations) reported that the youth unemployment rate rises to 67.6 million or around 13.6 percent. It is getting higher than adult unemployment, especially in Northern Africa and the Arab States. The youth unemployment rate in Northern Africa is going up to 29.8 and 23.0 in the Arab States. All of these are pointing us to a huge economic downturn, and it will expand to have long term effects on the economic system.
Unexpected Experiences
Many new graduates expect to get jobs after graduation, yet how they can do right now is trying to find normal jobs to decrease their expenditure. However, hiring has slowed down and is freezing everywhere around the world. Many companies have made decisions to reduce or delay the number of new graduates, and available jobs are insufficient.
The reason is that entering new employees into the labour market in a recession can negatively affect in the long term, especially in the current situation. It is a time that the companies have lost much income, and they begin laying off all employees.
Spending More Time in School and Doing Internship
It is a hard time for new graduates to apply for jobs. Some of them prefer to extend their time in the university through postgraduate study. Another side is that students are doing internships to improve their working skills while waiting for jobs, even if it is an unpaid internship. Furthermore, they particularly likely have to deal with stress and financial problems, which are unexpected experiences for them.
Changes and Temporary Solutions
In some countries, many governments have measures to help all new graduates or youth unemployed affected by pandemic like temporary solutions. Normally, unemployment insurance or UI does not include the youth unemployed in the list. It also contains working college students and new graduates. In March, Congress had passed the CARES Act responding to the health and economic crisis impacted by COVID-19.
They created a program called PUA (Pandemic Unemployment Assistance) to provide unemployment benefits for people who are unable to work as a result of the pandemic. It is a good opportunity that this time the program is eligible for working students and new graduates around 18-24 years old. The programs have different amounts of funds depending on cases, and the duration of the program is around 3-6 months.
What Will Happen After Pandemic
There is not a lot of evidence at this time to prove that everything will be getting better immediately after the end of the pandemic. Many experts estimate that the world after the COVID-19 will unlikely be impossible to return to the world it was, especially in the economic field. Hence, the best thing that everyone can do is stay tuned with the situation and take what everyone learns to get prepared for the next coming future.
The Bright Sides
Most conversations tend to revolve only on the negative sides of the pandemic. Nonetheless, some good things have happened at the same time. It would be great to pick up some positive sides instead of focusing on all negative parts for increasing positive energy. All students or new graduates could have this opportunity to improve themselves. Such as spending time with online classes, getting to know more about yourself by setting new goals or doing remote internships.
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