What is also worrying a lot of people is the number of educated youth who are out of work. This matters hugely in countries with young populations
Paetongtarn Shinawatra, 37, is Thailand’s new Prime Minister. She is the country’s youngest prime minister and the youngest daughter of Thaksin Shinawatra, former Thai prime minister, and tycoon. Tough tasks lie ahead. They include addressing youth unemployment and fixing Thailand’s sluggish economy. This is an emerging concern in Thailand, an upper middle-income country, and across Southeast Asia.
“In Southeast Asia, the youth unemployment rate stands at 9.5 per cent, translating to 4.5 million people. However, 17.6 per cent of youth are NEET,” says Ken Chamuva Shawa, senior economist at the ILO (International Labour Organization) Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok.
“NEET,” an acronym for “not in education, employment, or training,” is becoming increasingly relevant in discussions about jobs, joblessness, and the economy, and typically with reference to young people.
In the context of Southeast Asia, this means, “some 11.2 million young men and women (15 -24 age-group) are missing out on their chances for a better future,” as Shawa points out. Especially vulnerable are young women, those with limited financial means or from minority backgrounds.
India shares Southeast Asia’s NEET challenge. The economy may be growing but there is insufficient growth of decent jobs. What is also worrying a lot of people is the number of educated youth who are out of work. This matters hugely in countries with dominantly young populations. India’s median age is 28; the corresponding figure for Southeast Asia is 30.2.
There are common challenges — jobless youth, a skills mismatch between formal education and needs of the industry.
One in five young people, or 20.4 per cent, globally, were NEET in 2023. Two in three of these NEETs were female, says the ILO report.
The job situation in Thailand, an upper middle-income country, has improved since the Covid pandemic but analysts say the Thai labour market is suffering a mismatch in terms of qualifications and skills.
Despite a marked drop in unemployment in general, new university graduates make up the largest group of the nation’s jobless, reported Bangkok Post, citing recent data from the country’s National Statistical Office.
In Malaysia, another Southeast Asian country, the economy is recovering, tourists are returning, investments are booming, domestic demand is higher, but there is the nagging issue of youth unemployment, as Edwin Oh Chun Kit, a researcher at The Institute of Strategic Analysis and Policy Research (INSAP), a Malaysian think tank, pointed out in a commentary piece in March for Channel News Asia.
“As of December, last year, 307,200 young Malaysians aged 15 to 24 were jobless, representing an unemployment rate of 10.6 per cent. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate for those in the wider 15 to 30 age bracket was 6.4 per cent, comprising 432,100 youths...,” noted Kit.
Kit noted that vocational education could potentially bridge this education-industry gap, but internal reforms need to happen first.
Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s most populous country, is also grappling with the same problem. Indonesia’s average economic growth rate of 5% may seem promising, but it is not enough to absorb the growing number of job seekers. If official India is lyrical about its vision of Viksit Bharat 2047, Indonesia promotes its Golden Indonesia 2045 when the country will commemorate 100 years of its independence from Dutch colonial rule.
One common thread linking India and countries in Southeast Asia seems to be the slow adaption of educational institutions to rapid changes sweeping the globe and the evolving world of work.
In every country, there is a mismatch between the education that young people typically receive and skills that are in demand in the job market today. That needs to change. We need a more granular discussion on how to improve education and vocational training to better align with industry needs.
“The situation has been aggravated by the mismatch between the skills possessed by the current youth labour force and their inability to forecast the potential skillsets that are in demand,” noted Dio Herdiawan Tobing, a lead researcher of the ASEAN Foundation’s study on Youth Job Market and Skills Demand for the Future in a 2022 blog of the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI).
In his blog, Tobing references a report by LinkedIn, (2021), Jobs on the Rise in Southeast Asia. The report highlights that at least 41 out of 67 rising job positions from 15 job sectors require proficiency in basic digital skills, such as the ability to perform digital marketing, operate basic office software (e.g. Microsoft Office), manage cloud computing, and set up internet and digital communications tools. “Furthermore, 12 positions require advanced digital skills, such as proficiency in programming, coding, data science and analysis, and UI/UX,” noted Tobing.
Cataclysmic changes are sweeping the world and the job market. Workforces will require more digital knowledge to survive. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming labour markets around the world. Countries must invest in building AI skills in youth to keep their economy competitive. Clearly, critical thinking, soft skills, and knowledge of languages are assets. All this hinges on a strong foundation of good basic education. For every young person. Not just some.
India’s demographic advantage could quickly turn into demographic disaster if it fails to offer hope to the growing numbers of young and unemployed, which include university graduates, and get more young women into the labour force.
On the 10th anniversary of India’s “Act East Policy”, intended for stronger trade and business ties with South East Asia and other Indo Pacific countries, here is a suggestion to India’s policy makers – swap notes with these countries on the shared challenge of youth unemployment.
-- FPJ
