FWers might be interested in part of an article in a special Financial Times supplement today, "The World's Young People":
<<<< The army of the jobless gets bigger still Jonathan Guthrie If the world were a company, its chief executive would be dismissed for making such a poor use of its assets. Young people are generally vigorous, mobile, quick to learn and have long periods of potential economic productivity ahead of them. But, according to the International Labour Organisation in Geneva, an estimated 66 million young men and women are unemployed. This represents about 41% of the world total of 160 million jobless. A scandalous waste. The worst affected countries are in southern Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean, the former Soviet Union countries and Africa. In Moscow alone there are 40,000 children and young people without work, indeed without homes and large numbers of them live in the sewers. Among other examples given are Italy, with 33% youth unemployment, Dominica, with 41%, Poland with 30%, South Africa with a massive 56% and Latin America countries with jobless levels between 36% and 66%. Some countries have staged successful fightbacks against a monster which saps young people's self-belief, marginalising them economically and socially, and contributing to criminality and generational fragmentation. On the upside, the Republic of Ireland's economic miracle pushed youth unemployment down from 19 to 8% between 1995 and 1999. Similar improvements were achieved by Spain and Hungary, which recorded reductions from 40 to 28% and from 19 to 12% respectively over the same period. However, these were the exceptions to a general deterioration marked by an 8 million increase in the army of the unemployed around the world during those five years. While economic success contributed to falling jobless totals in a few countries, relatively healthy growth in GDP did not, in general, translate into improved youth employment. This augurs poorly for the 1.2 billion young people projected to enter the labour market during the next 30 years. The root causes of youth unemployment are legion. They include education systems which do little to provide work-related skills, gains in manufacturing productivity, over-protective employment regulations and business legislation which stifles the entrepreneurial flame in those without the assets to back their ambitions. For example, one young artisan operated a workshop in a home built without official permission on waste ground. Since the authorities do not recognise that the artisan owns the property, he cannot raise working capital using the dwelling as security. His "factory" could also be bulldozed at any minute. . . . . ----------- __________________________________________________________ �Writers used to write because they had something to say; now they write in order to discover if they have something to say.� John D. Barrow _________________________________________________ Keith Hudson, Bath, England; e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________
