Coronavirus: Pandemic has widened global generation gap as youth unemployment rates soar, report finds

A new global study has revealed that young people have less job security and disposable income and find it harder to afford housing

A worker wearing a protective suit disinfects a globe-shaped public garden, following the outbreak of coronavirus in Algiers, Algeria, on March 23, 2020. Reuters

A medical worker collects a swab sample from a passenger at Muscat international airport in the Omani capital on October 1, 2020. AFP

A mask-clad Iraqi man walks past a mural painting showing the digits 2020 covered by a face mask worn around the world as a means of protection against the coronavirus, in the capital Baghdad's central Tahrir Square, on October 1, 2020. AFP

Iranian sanitary workers disinfect Qom's Masumeh shrine on February 25, 2020 to prevent the spread of the coronavirus which reached Iran. AFP

A Moroccan health ministry worker disinfects a man walking a dog and carrying a mat in the capital Rabat on March 22, 2020. AFP

A mask-clad camel guide near the Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops) at the Giza Pyramids in Cairo on July 1, 2020. AFP

Expatriates returning from Egypt, Syria and Lebanon arrive to be re-tested at a Kuwaiti health ministry containment and screening zone in Kuwait City on March 16, 2020. AFP

An Iraqi family mourns a relative who died of coronavirus during a reburial ceremony at the vast Wadi Al Salam cemetery in the Shiite holy city of Najaf on September 11, 2020. AFP

Workers clean around the Kaaba on August 1, 2020, traced with lines for easing the physical distancing in the Grand Mosque of Mecca, during the annual Muslim Hajj pilgrimage. AFP

Muslim pilgrims circumambulating around the Kaaba, Islam's holiest shrine, while mask-clad and along specific pre-ordained rings, on the final day of the annual Muslim Hajj pilgrimage, August 2, 2020. AFP

A man sells face masks in Beirut on July 29, 2020. AFP

Sanitary workers disinfect the desks and chairs of the Lebanese Parliament in central Beirut on March 10, 2020 amid the spread of coronavirus in the country. AFP

A woman walks at an empty platform of a bus station, following the spread of the coronavirus disease, in Algiers, Algeria March 22, 2020. Reuters

Iraqi doctors test a resident for Covid-19 in the capital Baghdad's suburb of Sadr City on April 2, 2020. AFP

Members of the Libyan Red Crescent disinfect a street in the centre of the capital Tripoli on April 1, 2020. AFP

A worker disinfects a house in an impoverished neighbourhood in the central Iraqi holy city of Najaf on March 23, 2020 amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. AFP

Sanitation workers from Tadweer, the Abu Dhabi Centre for Waste Management, on the first day of the UAE sanitisation campaign on March 27, 2020. Victor Besa / The National

The new screening drive through at Zayed Sports City in Abu Ahabi. Chris Whiteoak / The National

A member of a medical team sprays disinfectant as a precaution against the coronavirus outbreak at a tuk-tuk three wheel motorcycle in Shobra district in Cairo, Egypt, 03 April 2020. EPA

Employees of the Fatih Municipality wearing protective suits disinfect the Hagia Sophia to prevent the spread of the Covid-19. AFP

A Palestinian taxi driver and passengers, mask-clad due to the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, wait to cross to the Egyptian side of Rafah border crossing in the southern Gaza Strip, on September 27, 2020. AFP

A Lebanese employee wearing a protective mask looks at a bed in a ward where the first case of coronavirus in the country is being treated, at the Rafik Hariri University Hospital in the southern outskirts of the capital Beirut, on February 22, 2020. AFP

A view of beds at a shopping mall, one of Iran's largest, which has been turned into a centre to receive patients suffering from the coronavirus disease, in Tehran, Iran, April 4, 2020. Reuters

Sanitation workers from Tadweer spraying the pedestrian crossing on Hamdan and Fatima Bint Mubarak Street in Abu Dhabi on March 27, 2020. Victor Besa / The National

A delivery driver wearing a face mask at downtown Abu Dhabi, April 6, 2020. Victor Besa / The National

Boki Prekovic, a Serbian accordion player, keeping residents stuck at home entertained from his balcony on March 19, 2020, The Greens, Dubai. Chris Whiteoak / The National

Iraqi President Barham Saleh and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron great each other with an elbow bump as they hold a joint press conference at Baghdad's al-Salam Palace on September 2, 2020. AFP

Medical staff in protective gears distribute information sheets to Iraqi passengers returning from Iran at Najaf International Airport on March 5, 2020. AFP

A Tunisian Red Crescent member prepares food packages to be delivered to the elderly and needy families during the ongoing emergency measures over the ongoing pandemic of the novel coronavirus disease, in Ben Arous, Tunisia, March 2020. EPA

The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated a gulf between generations with people aged under 25 far more likely to be unemployed, a new global report has revealed.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said unemployment rates have surged by 4.9 per cent since February - from 11.7 per cent to  16.6 per cent - for those aged 15 to 24, more than double the rise for those aged 25 and over.

The stark statistics are based on a survey of 34 OECD member countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and Spain, eight further non-member nations, the European Commission and 81 youth organisations.

The report states that while younger people are less likely to suffer ill health as a result of the virus, they are bearing a heavy cost brought about by worldwide lockdowns, the shutdown of education institutes and the ongoing impact on the economy.

Young people are likely to have less job security, less disposable income and find it harder to get on the housing ladder, the study by the intergovernmental economic organisation stated.

"Youth across OECD countries enjoy unprecedented access to information, education and technology," found the report titled Governance for Youth, Trust and Intergenerational Justice.

"However, the repercussions of the global financial crisis in the late 2000s, the Covid-19 pandemic and global transformations such as climate change, ageing, digitisation, and rising inequalities have created uncertainties about the future young people and unborn generations face."

During the pandemic, students lost part-time jobs and had fewer financial reserves to fall back on.

The study found that countrywide lockdowns and social distancing measures in place in many OECD countries had disrupted everyday life.

“The pandemic hit OECD countries at a moment when many young people had barely recovered from the repercussions of the 2007-08 global financial crisis," stated the report.

“When youth are not active in social life and the labour market, the costs for societies and economies are high.

"Their absence undermines social cohesion, productivity, and the potential for inclusive growth."

Across OECD countries, the 2007-08 crisis left 15 million young people unemployed, while one in ten jobs held by people under the age of 30 was lost, found the report.

In 2017, on average across OECD countries, one in 10 young people aged 15-24 was not in education, employment or training.

This lead to an economic cost of between 0.9 per cent and 1.5 per cent of OECD GDP.

The study recommended that governments remove barriers to youth participation in politics, create programmes to help young people join the public sector, and provide programmes for inter-generational learning.

Suggestions included strengthening volunteering and youth work opportunities, investing in youth strategies, and making targeted policies to help young people.

Governments also need to show a strong commitment to reduce inequalities within different age groups and promote age diversity in decision-making.

The Arab Youth Survey 2021, reported earlier in October, that one in five young Arabs said they or someone in their family had lost their job due to coronavirus.

The survey reported that 72 per cent said it was “much more difficult” or a “little more difficult” to find a job now compared with the pre-Covid era.

In the UAE, 41 per cent said finding a new job is more difficult now than before the pandemic.

The report also found that more than four in 10 people aged 18 to 24 had thought about or were attempting to emigrate.

The youth survey involved face-to-face interviews with 4,000 people in 17 countries.

The survey found that 35 per cent of respondents had personal debt, up from 15 per cent five years ago.