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Education and Youth Unemployment in South Africa
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Abstract
The problem of high youth unemployment is a global phenomenon. According to an International Labour Office study in 2004, youth (15-24) make up nearly half (47%) of the world's unemployed, 88 million out of 186 million, even though youth are only 25% of the world's working age population. Of the world's 550 million working poor who cannot lift themselves above US 1perdaypovertymeasure,150millionareyouth.TheILOestimatedin2004thathalvingglobalyouthunemploymentwouldincreaseglobalGDPbyUS2.2 trillion, 4% of global GDP. These statistics lend weight to the notion that youth unemployment is a problem worthy of attention. In addition, one may argue that addressing unemployment in general would also lower poverty levels and add to GDP (World Bank 2006).