The world is facing a worsening youth employment crisis: young people are three times more likely to be unemployed than adults, and almost 73 million youth worldwide are looking for work. The ILO has warned of a “scarred” generation of young workers facing a dangerous mix of high unemployment, increased inactivity and precarious work in developed countries, as well as persistently high working poverty in the developing world. 

The ILO's programme on youth employment operates through a global network of technical teams at its headquarters in Geneva and in more than 60 offices around the world. It provides assistance to countries in developing coherent and coordinated interventions on youth employment. This integrated approach combines macro-economic policies and targeted measures which address labour demand and supply, as well as the quantity and quality of employment. 

Multiple technical cooperation programmes exist to address the issue of youth employment. They range from large scale inter-regional programmes looking at policies, to competitive grant schemes supporting young entrepreneurs, and evaluation projects to identify and replicate approaches that work.