ILO: Youth employment is a major challenge for young people in the Pacific

ILO Assistant Director-General and Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific, Mr Yoshiteru Uramoto highlighted that youth employment is a major challenge, faced by young people in the Pacific, when he addressed the 3rd Meeting of the Pacific Youth & Sports Ministers, in Noumea, New Caledonia on 7 December 2013.

Press release | Noumea, New Caledonia | 07 December 2013
NOUMEA, NEW CALEDONIA (ILO News) - The International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) Assistant Director-General and Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific, Mr Yoshiteru Uramoto highlighted that youth employment is the major challenge, faced by young people in the Pacific, when he addressed the 3rd Meeting of the Pacific Youth & Sports Ministers, in Noumea, New Caledonia.

While he stated that there are 73.4 million young people unemployed and 40 million new comers to the labour market every year, he added that youth unemployment in the Pacific stands at an alarming 23 per cent (SPC, 2011). He further stated that young people in the Pacific are 6 times less likely to secure jobs relative to older workers (ILO, 2013).

The Ministerial meeting was organised by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) with the support of the Government of New Caledonia. The meeting was also attended by the Minister for Sports, Youth, Community Education and Volunteering Associations, Madam Valerie Fourneyron.

This meeting was convened at the back of the 2nd Pacific Youth & Sports Conference from 2-6 December 2013, which brought together 750 young people from the pacific, where the ILO participated actively. The challenges faced by young people in securing decent and productive employment was well featured during the 5 day conference.

Mr Yoshiteru Uramoto, ILO Assistant Director-General and Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific addressed the 3rd Meeting of the Pacific Youth & Sports Conference, in Noumea, New Caledonia.
“To address the Youth Employment Crisis, the International Labour Conference and its 185 member countries have agreed on a resolution, a ‘Call for Action” in 2012. Its recommendations relate to designing employment and economic policies that place jobs first; enhancing education, training & skills and facilitating the school-to-work transition; promoting labour market policies; encouraging entrepreneurship and self-employment and enhancing the rights for young people”, said Mr Uramoto.

He also conveyed his appreciation of the SPC in taking the lead in the development of the Pacific Youth Development Framework (PYDF) 2014-23, where the ILO has provided support in developing the youth employment component of the framework.

When contributing to the youth employment session, the Minister for Youth of Samoa, Hon. Tolofuaivalelei Leiatava confirmed that youth employment was a major issue in Samoa and welcomed the ILO and UNDP’s initiative in jointly developing a national level programme to address the high youth unemployment situation in Samoa.

The ILO is also grateful that the meeting endorsed the Pacific Youth Development Framework (2014-23) which included “More young people have access to secure decent employment” as an outcome area. In addition, the ILO also commends the Pacific Youth & Sports Ministers for including and strongly emphasising the need for action on youth employment in the Pacific, as reflected in the outcome document of the meeting.

For further information please contact: 

Mr David Lamotte
Director, Office for the Pacific Island Countries,
International Labour Organisation (ILO)
Suva, Fiji
(679) 990 6661 or (679) 331 3866
Email