COVID-19 Pandemic Creating 'Lockdown Generation', Several Young People Stopped Working: United Nations

More than one in six young people who fall under the age group of 18-29 have stopped working since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, said the United Nation's labour agency.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) in its fourth report on the effect of COVID-19 on the employment opportunities and the state of the global workforce said that the pandemic has disproportionately affected young people and could impact their career for decades to come.

The novel coronavirus has hit the young population and there is a risk that they will be scarred throughout their lives, creating a "lockdown generation", said ILO in its report.

"I don't think it is giving way to hyperbole to talk about the danger of a lockdown generation," ILO chief Guy Ryder told a virtual press conference.

"As we recover from the pandemic, a lot of young people are simply going to be left behind. Big numbers," he said, warning that "the danger is... that this initial shock to young people will last a decade or longer.

People are going to be permanently scarred due to the immediate effects of the coronavirus outbreak, he added.

It has cautioned that young people are facing a "triple shock" from the crisis. It is not only destroying their employment but has also disrupted education and training, and has made it far more difficult to get a job or switch from one job to another.

The UN agency said that although it did not have enough data to assess the overall youth unemployment rate since the onset of the crisis, a survey of people belonging up to the age of 29, stated that over 17 per cent of those who were working when the pandemic hit had been forced to stop, globally.

The study suggested that those who have been fortunate enough to work during the pandemic, have seen their working hours cut on average by 23 per cent

It found that around half of students expect their education to be delayed, while 10 per cent now believe they will be unable to complete their training at all.

And atleast 60 per cent of young women and 53 per cent of young men surveyed viewed their career prospects "with uncertainty or fear", the report found.

The ILO report called for an urgent and large-scale response to the crisis, including employment and training guarantee programmes for young people.

"If their talent and energy is sidelined by a lack of opportunity or skills it will damage all our futures and make it much more difficult to re-build a better, post-COVID economy," Ryder warned.

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