Young people across Asia are struggling to find good jobs, with many stuck in low-productivity work that the World Bank said could strain social stability as frustrations fuel a global wave of youth-led protests.
The bank highlighted a persistent gap between younger and more experienced workers across several Asian economies in a regional economic update released yesterday, noting that one in seven young people in China and Indonesia are unemployed.
The share of people now vulnerable to falling into poverty is now larger than the middle class in most countries, it said.
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“The employment rate is generally high, but the young struggle to find jobs,” the World Bank wrote, adding that most people in Asia “who look for work find it.”
However, “many individuals in the region are in low-productivity or informal jobs,” it said.
Labor force participation remains low in Pacific nations and among women, with about a 15 percentage-point gap compared with men in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, it said.
The report also found that much of the region’s job growth has shifted from manufacturing to low-wage services, eroding gains that once lifted millions out of poverty.
Governments across Africa and Asia have been grappling with a surge of Gen Z-led demonstrations in the past few months, with thousands taking to the streets in the Philippines, Morocco, Madagascar, Indonesia, East Timor, Kenya and Mongolia to protest corruption, joblessness and widening inequality. The demonstrations, fueled by anger over lavish displays of wealth by ruling elites, have targeted governments — toppling administrations in Nepal and Bangladesh.
A closer look at the numbers in Asia shows that the unemployment rates of those aged 15-24 are more than 10 percent in places like Mongolia, Indonesia and China, while the rate among prime-aged workers aged 25-54 is 5 percent or lower, World Bank data showed.
Firms that are five years old or less play an out-sized role in job creation, the bank said.
In Malaysia and Vietnam for example, they account for 57 percent of total employment, but contribute 79 percent of job creation, and yet their role has been dampened because fewer new firms are entering markets, the report said.
Trade has boosted jobs in countries such as Cambodia and Vietnam, though gains remain uneven and vulnerable to global shocks, it said.
“Countries are not fully realizing the benefits of moving workers from less to more productive sectors and firms,” the World Bank said.
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