source: peacechild.org
Unemployment is not just limited to being jobless; it also includes the inability to get decent work. Now, I imagine you are thinking, “What’s decent work?” Decent work means dignity, equality, a fair income and safe working conditions. Decent work puts people at the center of development. It gives women, men and indeed, youth, a voice in what they do. It also provides rights to protect them from exploitation, and a future that is inclusive and sustainable. Decent work drives sustainable development. Decent work shield us from discrimination. You still think you've got a decent job??
For many poor people, work is a major route for eluding penury. However, the majority of penurious people in developing countries already have jobs. The problem is that these are predominantly in the informal economy, where conditions are usually insecure. Bear in mind that eradicating penury is not solely a question of employment opportunities, but rather making available quality and quantifiable jobs enough to lead to penury depletion.
Varying levels of satisfaction with income/wages in different countries
Decent Work and Economic Growth
The International Labour Organization has incorporated decent work and its four pillars- employment creation, social protection, rights at work and social dialogue- as one of the 2030 agendas for sustainable development during the United Nation’s general Assembly in September 2015. Furthermore, key aspects of decent work are widely embedded in the targets of many of the other sixteen goals of the United Nation’s new development vision. But this is not a call to relax and feel safe. Rather it is a call to wake up and advocate to ensure that the desired change in the aspect of unemployment and decent work is addressed. This is necessary because the statistics on unemployment are quite alarming and staggering and the situation as a whole should be unacceptable.
Source: Asia Decent Work Agenda, ILO.
How can the youth be leaders of tomorrow when they lack gainful employment today? How will their dreams, visions and ideas be achieved? How can they take their place in society, when they lack good and respectable jobs, job security in the workplace, fair income, e.t.c? It's time to speak up, advocate to make sure measures are put in place to effectively and efficiently eradicate this horrifying situation!
Drop your comments, opinions and questions, let's have an incisive conversation. If we don't create the change we seek, who will?