There’s something that everybody should be concerned about: the impact of digitalization on the job market. While the world celebrates the promise of digitalization and artificial intelligence (AI), this shift is creating a skill mismatch with the evolving demands of the job market — especially for young people — and widening the gap between those who have the required digital skills, connectivity and access to digital resources, and those who do not.
It’s not that young people aren’t educated or skilled — they are the most educated generation in history. Yet millions remain on the sidelines, unable to access decent jobs in a global economy that’s evolving faster than anyone can catch up. They face labor markets that aren’t adapting fast enough, education systems disconnected from real-world opportunities, and economies that undervalue or underutilize their talent.
The problem isn’t with young people. It is structural. And yes, there’s data to back this up.
Recent data from the International Labour Organization (ILO) show that while global youth unemployment fell to a 15-year low of 13%, 20.4% of young people globally are not in employment, education, or training (NEET). Two-thirds of them are young women. In Sub-Saharan Africa, NEET rates are among the highest in the world and show no signs of decline.
Even for those in school, a degree is no longer a guarantee of employment. Across developing economies, two-thirds of young workers are in jobs that don’t match their qualifications, while employers continue to report widespread labour and skills shortages. Youth are too often overqualified for jobs that don’t pay enough, while employers claim they can’t find skilled workers. Moreover, young people in lower-income regions lack access to the resources, education, or digital tools needed to compete. These gaps need to be bridged if we want to address the global youth employment challenge.
Mismatched and Undervalued: Why Education and Digitalization Aren’t Translating Into Jobs
Let’s talk about digitalization — new tools, new industries, AI, remote jobs, and online platforms. These sound like a win, right? Shouldn’t digitalization open up more opportunities for young people?
Instead of opening opportunities, digitalization is deepening existing inequalities, especially for young people living in lower-income parts of the Global South where it is more likely for digital infrastructure to be poor and where education systems may not have caught up with the digital realities of the labour market. While many employers report difficulty filling roles that require technical or digital skills, investment in youth training and capacity-building remains inconsistent. As a result, without this investment, young people are left scrambling to figure it out on their own.
Another adjacent issue is the fact that even when young people do have the skills, a decent job isn’t guaranteed. Globally, more than half of young people today work in the informal economy, where wages are low, protections are minimal, and there’s no real path to growth. It's work, but it's not decent work.
This disconnect is something the ILO has identified and is working to fix. Not just job creation and minimizing the gap between knowledge and employment, but they’re also working to ensure rights at work, dignity, and the kind of growth that includes everyone, everywhere in today’s digital and fast-changing world.
How is the ILO Addressing the Disconnect Between Education, Employment, and Decent Work?
The ILO and the UN at large have recognized that digitalization has become a core feature of labour markets worldwide — from on-demand logistics services to remote software developers, to content creators earning an income online.
To unlock the full potential of young people, the ILO is calling for urgent action from governments, social partners, including employers and workers, donors, multilaterals, youth networks, academia and civil society actors on two fronts:
- Equip young people with practical, in-demand skills, and ensure those skills are recognized. This means creating training and certification systems that employers understand and trust. Young people need to be able to show what they know in a way that hiring managers can easily compare and value.
- Put people first in the age of AI. This means urging governments and other stakeholders to adopt a “Human in Command” approach using tools like big data and shared standards to help young people match their skills to real jobs, access inclusive training, and avoid being left behind by rapid technological change.
The ILO is approaching this on three fronts: policy, systems, and rights.
At the policy level, the ILO is spearheading the Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection — a high-level UN initiative designed to help countries redirect international financing toward comprehensive policies that generate employment and expand social protection for workers, particularly for youth and women, and to accelerate progress towards the achievement of Global Goal 8, which calls for indiscriminate access to decent work and economic growth for all.
Then there’s the Global Coalition for Social Justice, where the ILO is coordinating partnerships between governments, partners, and experts to promote inclusive and youth-focused action on employment. These include preparing young people for digital and green jobs, and addressing challenges such as informality and gender inequality.
On a systems level, the ILO is helping governments reform technical and vocational education and training (TVET) systems so that what young people learn prepares them for jobs that are in demand. When it comes to rights, the ILO advocates for fair wages, protections for gig and informal workers, and protecting and promoting rights at work for all youth — regardless of where or how they work.
This is why the High-level Political Forum (HLPF) 2025 — the United Nations’ main platform for reviewing the progress of the Global Goals — is crucial for furthering the work towards advancing efforts to ensure equal access to decent work. With Global Goal 8 under review and youth employment as the core focus, the ILO and its partners are leveraging this rare opportunity to mobilize political will and push for national reforms that make youth employment systems more inclusive, future-fit, and grounded in social justice.
But Here’s the Thing: We Cannot Reach These Goals Without Youth Participation
If we want digitalization to work for young people, systems must be designed to reflect their needs, competencies, and desire for growth in the workplace.
This is why the ILO emphasizes that youth participation must be a priority at every level of the decision-making process. We need to future-proof our economic systems and ensure equitable job markets, the same systems and markets that we’ll be leaving to today’s young people. They deserve a say in the systems that they are destined to inherit. The ILO fosters this by advancing youth-inclusive social dialogue and by putting young people at the centre of policies and programmes designed to promote decent jobs for youth. By facilitating young people’s participation and leadership in global ILO events, direct trainings, and youth challenges, valuable insights are gained, consensus is achieved, and policies and programmes are shaped accordingly.
Some examples that illustrate how ILO is fostering the voice and representation of young people in shaping the future of work can be seen in the creation of the Youth Advisory Group of the Green Jobs for Youth Pact and the Youth Network Committee of ILO Prospects in Ethiopia. Another is through opinion surveys that capture perceptions and aspirations of young people in the labour market, for instance, the Youth and COVID-19 survey conducted between April and May 2020, and the Youth Employment Barometer conducted between Nov. 2024 and Feb. 2025.
Young people can engage in these dialogues that promote decent work and economic inclusion by joining the Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth — a platform led by the ILO to scale up action and impact on youth employment through effective, evidence-based interventions. The initiative brings together over 100 organizations working across key priorities — from digital and green jobs to youth in rural and fragile contexts. Together, their actions have already reached more than 42 million young people.
Joining this initiative means tapping into a global alliance committed to creating real, lasting opportunities for youth everywhere. Ready to take action? Make a commitment to support youth employment through the Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth.
The image in this article was designed by Thiha, a recipient of Global Citizen's Emerging Creatives Program. You can learn more about him and his work here.