DUSHANBE, January 17, 2013, Asia-Plus -- Failing to act on the youth jobs crisis would sow the seeds of social unrest and destroy hopes for sustainable growth. That is a cost the world cannot afford, International Labor Organization (ILO) Director-General Guy Ryder said at a conference on youth employment in Budapest.

ILO chief called for less austerity and more investments to promote a jobs recovery at a time when the youth employment crisis threatens to scar “the very fabric of our societies.”

Ryder stressed that measures promoting youth employment should be shielded from austerity policies and that spending on such programs should be increased.

“Investing in these measures is far less costly than dealing with the consequences through unemployment benefits, anti-social behavior or a more permanent disconnect from the labor market,” the ILO Director-General told government, worker and employer representatives at the conference in Budapest.  “The higher the investment, the lower the youth unemployment rate,” he added.

Ryder pointed out that the global crisis took a bigger toll on youth than any other group.

Worldwide, nearly 75 million youth aged 15 to 24 are unemployed.

In Europe, 5.5 million youth are unemployed. That represents 22 per cent, more than double the rate for adults.

Long-term unemployment affects nearly 30 per cent of unemployed youth in Europe.

Some 14 million young people, or more than 15 per cent of European youth aged between 15 and 29, are NEETs - neither in education, employment or training. The number of NEETs has almost doubled over nearly two years.

Apprenticeships and other work-training programs, government incentives for employers who hire young people, entrepreneurship, social enterprises and cooperatives, as well as public employment programs can be part of the solution.

The ILO Director-General said the 2012 ILO Call for Action on youth employment was a very strong call to policy makers to respond to the youth employment crisis. The Call for Action is accompanied by a policy portfolio of possible and tested measures from around the world that were debated and evaluated long and hard during the last International Labor Conference.