Youth Unemployment Issues in South East Asia

This report conducts a literature review on youth unemployment issues in South-East Asia, exploring the causes and consequences of unemployment in the region. It also provides insights into strategies to prevent youth unemployment, such as implementing regional integration policy and developing infrastructure.

Running head: YOUTH EMPLOYMENT
Youth unemployment issues in south East Asia
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author’s note

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Abstract
Youth unemployment is regarded as a global issue and it has significant impact on
economy and productivity of a country. The main purpose of this report is to conduct literature
review on youth unemployment issues in South-East Asia. Through search for relevant literature
using database like CINAHL and PubMed and key terms like ‘Youth unemployment’, ‘cause of
youth unemployment’, ‘preventing youth unemployment’ and ‘preventing youth unemployment
in developed countries’, the literature review explores the causes and consequences of
unemployment in South-East Asia and other developing countries. The key findings explored
includes causes of youths unemployment such as imbalance in employment-to-population ratios,
low participation of youths in employment in agriculture and manufacturing sectors of South-
east Asia region and impact of contemporary, social, political and economic issues on
employment rate. The literature review also gives insight into strategies to prevent youth
unemployment such as implementing regional intergration policy, developing infrastructure,
income support schemes to hire youths with low initial productivity and social protection
measures for youth. These strategies can be applied in South-East Asian to deal with rising
unemployment issues among youth.

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Table of Contents:
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................2
Methods:..........................................................................................................................................4
Literature review:.............................................................................................................................4
Discussion:.....................................................................................................................................12
Recommendations:........................................................................................................................12
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................14
References:....................................................................................................................................16

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Introduction:
Youths have special importance for all countries globally as they will become the
individuals who will fulfil development goals and trigger productivity of countries. The talent
and energetic mind can be exploited to create a better world and strengthen economies and
global market (Ayhan, 2016). However, high prevalence of youth unemployment issue in
developed and developing countries is a global problem today and this has seriously challenged
working conditions in countries. According to the estimate by ILO (2018), the global
unemployment rate increased to 5.6% in 2017 with about 192 million people being unemployed.
Although vulnerable employment rate reduced since 2012, however in 2019, about 35 million
more people are expected to join the vulnerable employment group. Like other developing
countries, South East Asia is also a region which is facing challenges because of increase in
youth unemployment rate. In 2015, the youth unemployment rate was 12.9% in South-East Asia.
It comprises countries like Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Phillippines, Andaman
Island, Maldives and Laos. South East Asia has the largest proportion of unemployed youths and
legislation and cultural factor is highly linked as the cause behind unemployment in the region.
As prolonged period of unemployment can lead to loss of human capital and poor productivity,
find the best approach to resolve youth unemployment issues in South East Asia is necessary.
There are many causes of youth unemployment. Some important reasons include poor
macroeconomic performance and insufficient employment creation. Youths are the most affected
group when a country cannot create enough opportunities for employment. They are more
vulnerable to risk because of low social capital, fewer years of service, inadequate work
experience and less company specific knowledge. Youths are more likely to leave the job too
compared to adult workers because of their preference of exploring different job opportunities

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(Ayhan, 2016). This form of preferences also imbalances demand and supply of the labour
market. The consequences of youth unemployment are also negative and burdensome. It has an
affect not only on current economy but also for loss of economy in the future. Being unemployed
for longer period are linked to long period of negative feelings and poor mental health. Research
evidence has revealed that unemployment is associated with feelings of uselessness,
hopelessness, mental stress and depression. Unemployment has been associated with self-
reported poor health and mental disorders (Farré, Fasani & Mueller, 2018). Although research
gives idea about the consequences of unemployment, however there is a need to explore the
cause of unemployment in South East Asia and the strategies to prevent it as such analysis has
not been done in past research work. This can be done by framing appropriate research question.
The research question that can guide the literature review includes:
What are the strategies to address youth unemployment issues in South East Asia?
The main purpose of this paper is to conduct a literature review on youth unemployment
issues in South East Asia and identify strategies that has implemented in developed and
developing countries to reduce youth unemployment. The literature will first focus on identifying
the causes of youth unemployment issues in South East Asia and other countries of the world and
then focus on finding out possible strategies or interventions that has been implemented to
address youth unemployment. The critical review of the strategies used will help to understand
the need for changes in the context of South East Asia and recommend best solutions to address
the issue, promote career development and employment for youths.
Methods:
Research question:

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The main research question that guides the literature review is ‘What are the strategies to
address youth unemployment issues in South East Asia?’. This research question is
comprehensive as it defines the population of interest (unemployed youths), setting (South East
Asia) and key outcome of interest (reduce or address youth unemployment)
Search strategy:
The search for literature has been done by the use of database like CINAHL and PubMed.
Google scholar, government based reports and websites were used as sources for identifying
relevant articles for the literature review. Relevant key terms that were used to retrieved articles
include ‘Youth unemployment’, ‘cause of youth unemployment’, ‘preventing youth
unemployment’ and ‘preventing youth unemployment in developed countries’. To get more data
related to specific country, other search strategies like including name of countries in search
terms were also done. The key search limit that was applied included year of publication (2008
to 2018) and type of research paper (journals articles and government reports.).
Inclusion and exclusion criteria:
The main inclusion and exclusion criteria were as follows:
 To select research articles and other government reports published in the past 10 year
(2008 to 2018). Studies done before 2008 were excluded.
 Journal articles, website reports and government articles were also taken for the literature
review.
 Articles published only in English were taken. Studies published in other language were
excluded

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 The main research sample for the study should be youth. Research done on older adults
was excluded.
Data collection: Based on the use of search terms and search limits, all the articles obtained were
screened based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Firstly, the title and abstract was reviewed to
find relevant papers related to the research question. Secondly, the full-text was reviewed and
analyzed. Studies which met the inclusion criteria were taken for the literature review.
Data analysis: Thematic approach was used for data analysis and the main findings were group
into the theme of causes and consequences of youth unemployment and the strategies to prevent
it. The theme was developed before the literature review and the articles were arranged under
these two themes. The quality assessment was done based on review of methodological rigour
and consideration of biases in research procedure.
Literature review:
The main scope of this review is to evaluate causes and preventive strategies in relation
to youth unemployment issues in South East Asia. By using the search strategy and inclusion and
exclusion criteria, eight articles has been selected for the literature review. These eight articles
has been arranged based on the theme of ‘causes and consequences of youth unemployment’ and
‘strategies to prevent unemployment’. The findings of the review have been discussion under
each theme below.
Causes and consequences of youth unemployment in developed and developing countries:
The nature of challenges related to unemployment differs for different countries based on
their political and social environment. In case of Africa, the study by Baah-Boateng (2016)

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revealed increase in youth population and poor quality of economic growth as the key drivers of
youth unemployment. The identification of cause of unemployment suggests that imbalance in
employment-to-population ratios is one of the reasons behind poor job creation and this
imbalance have an effect on youth. In response to the cause of unemployment in the region,
adapting population control measures like investment in high labour absorption sectors like
agriculture and manufacturing and population control measures were proposed to scale down the
negative impact of youth unemployment rate in Africa. The study data was collected by
empirical analysis of data from 41 African countries covering period of 2000-2010. The use of
database is relevant for the study as the purpose was to evaluate performance of many countries.
The finding is validated good analysis and data interpretation process. The main research focus
for this review was to examine consequences and strategies to prevent youth unemployment and
the study gives the implication that identifying country specific factors contributing to youth
unemployment may help to target appropriate solution-focused steps to address the problem in
target countries.
In case of South East Asia, difference in rate of employment in males and females are
seen because of gender discrimination and existence of gender norms. The report by ILO (2016)
indicated that gender gap in relation to employment is significantly high in South-East Asia. The
gender gap in labour force participation rate has increased in the past decade and this is
understood from the figure that female participation in labor force is lower by 40% compared to
males. These forms of issues are in consistent with unemployment cause found in different
countries of South-East Asia. The research by Hamid et al. (2018) gave evidence regarding
employment gap in the Malaysian construction industry.The study focused on evaluating the
emerging skills gaps in the Malaysian constriction industry and the primary data collected

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revealed barriers like high risk, low wages, hard work and availability of expatriate workers as
the cause behind poor involvement of youth in the construction industry. Hence, construction
industry in Malaysia are mainly dependent on foreign labour as Malaysian youths prefer being
unemployed rather than work in construction industry. The reliability of this finding can be
understood from the review of research methodology. Mixed method approach was used for the
study and use of quantitative and qualitative data enhanced the richness of the data. The result
by Hamid et al. (2018) answers the research question and it can be applied to address low
participation of youths in employment in agriculture and manufacturing sectors of South-east
Asia region. Career advice and incentives can be a strategy to change perception of youths
towards construction industry and ensure that youths also contribute to the growth of
construction industry.
Different contextual factors influence youth employment rate in case of conflict affected
regions. This is understood from a research done by Bowden and Binns (2016) in Jaffna district
of Sri Lanka. Jaffna district is a region which emerged from three decades of violence and
isolation. The region is coping with ongoing issues like structural youth unemployment rate
because of contemporary, social, political and economic issues. The main challenges related to
youth unemployment in Sri Lanka is that young Sri Lankans have experienced difficulty in
getting employment even with skills and qualifications needed for the job. Acute shortage of
good job is the main reason behind poor employment in youths and this leads to job security
relates issues, exploitation and gender/ethnic discrimination of the vulnerable group. The study
also revealed relation between youth employment and marginalization as Sri Lankan Tamils
experiences caste, class and opportunity relate barrier in achieving employment. The need to
follow cultural norms also influences the decision to join certain area of employment. This

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finding is consistent with the paper by Radović-Marković (2016) which revealed that
discriminatory barriers exist in employment. The study was done with youths of Serbia and the
study gave the evidence that social exclusion and stereotyping of certain section of the
community in relation to job opportunities occur because of lack of appropriate programs
tailored to the needs of marginalized group. Various forms of discrimination in employment was
observed in Serbia such as short term employment for women, lack of demands for older adults
in the labour market and poor opportunities for people with disabilities. However, Bowden and
Binns (2016) supports that improvement is being seen in Sri Lanka now as more Tamils are
being influences by international exposure to freedom and going against traditional cultural
norm.
From the analysis of youth unemployment issues in South-East Asia, it has been found
that there is little or very few evidence on the effectiveness of youth employment strategies
implemented in countries like Sri Lanka. Hence, there is need to evaluate effectiveness of
preventive steps implemented in other developed and developed countries and use them to
recommend possible solutions to mitigate youth employment barrier in the South-East Asia
region.
Strategies to prevent youth unemployment:
The literature review identified youth population surge as a critical issue in Africa which
affected job creation and employment rate in the region. In response to this issue, the research by
Kararach, Hanson and Léautier (2011) used regional integration policy as a strategy to support
job creation and overcome the challenges associated with burgeoning youth population. Some of
the youthful intervention suggested to combat youth unemployment included active participation

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of Regional Economic Communities (RECs). They can play a role in promoting harmonization
across regions. Creation of policies in the finance and banking sector are important drivers of job
creation. In addition as growing youth population will encompass increase culturally diverse
youth population, focussing on unique job skills can help to tab unique capabilities embedded in
culture and geographical endowments. The research literature gives the implication that
developing appropriate infrastructure and regional based policies is the key to address youth
unemployment issues in South-East Asian region. Investment in infrastructure related to different
job roles in diverse sectors can diversify the economy of the region and promote economic
production too. Generating sufficient economic growth would also lead to creation of jobs in
large numbers and absorbing the growing number of youth in employment.
Youth unemployment rate has been an issue in many European countries. The review of
the research literature by Caliendo and Schmidl (2016) indicated the role of active labor market
policies (ALMPs) on improving career prospects of youth. Some of the active labor programs
that has been implemented in European countries include job search assistance program,
subsidize employment, training course and public work programs. The significance of this paper
is that it has discussed about the process and cons of each type of active labor policies. The
review of outcome of labor market training revealed that formal training is associated with
increased in education uptake, however it does not increase the probability of employment. In
other cases, practical training was found to give better outcome. Hence, overall effectiveness of
such training was found to be heterogenous thus reflecting that more intensive training is needed
for disadvantage youth struggling to get employment. In addition, job search assistance was
found to yield little favourable results for youth thus indicating that counselling cannot help
youth to find jobs faster. Another strategy that was evaluated in the research included subsidized

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wage or income support schemes to hire youths with low initial productivity. This was found to
have a positive effect on employment rate thus indicating that personalized coaching on job
preferences is vital. However, this evidence cannot be generalized for South-Asian context
because the research was done in developed countries like Germany and other regions where job
creation is not an issue. Hence, to implement appropriate strategies to address youth
unemployment rate in South-East, interventions tailored to the needs of this population group
needs to be identified. As job creation and poor economy is an issue in many South-East Asian
regions, policy related changes and more job creation related policies are needed. However, in
the context of South-East Asia, active labour policies may help in making jobless people more
employable and improving job matching process (ILO, 2016). On the whole, this paper gives the
implication that ALMPs cannot work for all regions and it may give unwanted results in other
Asian countries. Hence, country-wise data related to cause of youth unemployment should be
analyzed to frame effective strategy to reduce the issue.
As per the report by ILO (2016), work based training programmes are effective strategy
to change perception of youths in relation to job participation and decrease gap in relation to
labour force participation. Bowden and Binns (2016) gave example of organizations in Sri Lanka
such as Social Organisation Network for Development (SOND) and Jaffna Social Action Centre
(JSAC) that focuses on growing the capacity of disadvantaged rural communities. JSAC provide
livelihood support, housing and financial assistance and vocational training. The organization
has been effective in revitalizing livelihood, promoting skill development and enhancing career
development prospective for youth. Such organization can play a role in addressing regional
barrier in youth unemployment in South-East Asia. Although the article by Bowden and Binns
(2016) does not use regular research method to report about study findings and used data from

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recent field research to reconstruct unemployment issue, it is not a high quality paper. However,
review of recent articles in the paper gives direction for involvement of government and
community based actors to resolve the research issue. As the focus of research is to identify
strategies to prevent youth unemployment in South-East Asia, the study finding is relevant to the
research question.
In the context of South-Asian region, cultural barriers and discrimination are some of the
barrier to effective employment (Tummala-Narra, Deshpande & Kaur, 2016). Disadvantages for
youths in Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Thailand can lead to high risk of social exclusion and
marginalization. As presence of several disadvantages also affects youth’s ability to seek proper
education, they struggle to cope with failure at the first attempt. Negative experiences in career
lead to long lasting adverse effects too. Tariq and Syed (2017) demonstrated the ill-effects by
showing the issues of Muslim women in workplace. This was done by qualitative interviews
with Muslim female leaders and supervisors working in UK. The study revealed that their
dimensions of identity such as gender, ethnicity and religion were found to lead to discrimination
and disadvantage in the workplace. Although the applicability of the study is low as the same
finding cannot be generalized for women in other countries. Hence, in the context of South-Asia,
there is a need to conduct studies in sectors where men do not dominate. The study is significant
despite limitations because it gives directions regardingincreasing the employability of
disadvantaged and promoting equity and support young men and women to enter or re-enter the
labour market.
International Labour Force (2018) argues that in order to improve the employment
chances of disadvantaged youths, there is a need to address both country-specific challenges and
other common challenges. The first priority is to delay exit from formal education. Initiatives

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like transfer of cash or food are effective in reducing rate o withdrawal of children from school.
A study by Li et al. (2017) investigating about the impact of conditional cash transfers on
educational attainment of high school students in rural schools of China revealed that the strategy
was successful in increasing high school matriculation for disadvantaged students. The reliability
of this research is high as it used randomized controlled trial method to conduct research and it is
an effective research design to evaluate the impact of an intervention. Hence, due to high validity
and evidence of positive outcomes related to the intervention, similar initiatives can be targeted
for disadvantaged children living in South-Asian region too. This would help to fulfil the
research objective of this research and eliminate unemployment issues for youth.
The study by Ibarraran et al. (2014) indicated increasing uptake of vocation training
courses for disadvantaged youths so that needs of youth are addressed and future job prospects of
disadvantaged people can be improved. Randomized evaluation design was adapted to explore
the impact of Dominican Republic’s youth training program on youth behaviour and lifestyle.
Several developed countries have implemented formal apprenticeship and on-the job training
schemes. Similar type of initiative was implemented in Italy and the review of the causal effect
of apprenticeship indicated that such initiatives improve the chance of moving to a permanent
job. This result can be applied to South-East Asians setting too because high quality research
method has been used and it gives the idea that human capital gets access to appropriate training
provision to sustain and retain in the job market (Albanese, Cappellari & Leonardi, 2017). The
intervention is suitable for addressing unemployment issues in South-East Asia as mismatch has
been found in the requirement of the labor market and the technical and vocational training
systems. Some of the problem that has been found in South-East Asia is that educational and
training institutions in the region is targeting only the modern and formal sector (Mehrotra,

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2016). Hence, poor and disadvantaged groups fail to get access to skill development. Presence of
this problem in the region makes vocational training schemes as a critical approach to reduce the
burden of youth unemployment.
The review of research on possible solutions to address unemployment issues in youth
indicates policy based reform as a vital step to stabilize employment rates. The evidence by
Gebel and Giesecke (2016) gave idea regarding the importance of employment protection
legislation reforms in eliminating temporary unemployment risk in Europe. The benefits of
employment protection as evidenced from the research study include stabilization of
employment relationship, protection from unfair dismissal and reduction in variability of
employment. Hence, such employment protection initiative can reduce risk in employment for
youths. Deregulating the use of regular contract is an effective strategy to address youth job
insecurities and promote inclusion of youths in the labour market. The above study has been
done in Europe using cross-sectional approach and data has been obtained from survey done in
19 European countries. Hence, the data is high reliable and valid. These findings can be used to
evaluate whether South-Asia is successful in similar initiative or not. Labor market reforms and
unemployment dynamics are interconnected to each other because reforms like vacancy creation
and job matching function effectively utilizes the capability of heterogeneous workers (Murtin &
Robin, 2018). The findings give direction evaluation reforms in South-East Asia like
employment incentives, product market regulation and employment protection.
To conclude, the interventions discussed under this theme related to educational,
vocational training and employment protection suggest that these interventions are effective
when adequate number of job exists and the issue is only to integrate skilled labour forces in the
job market. However, job creation is one of the vital issues that remain to be addressed in many

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regions of South-East Asia. Hence, to ensure that all youths get the opportunity to get proper
jobs, job creation strategy is considered crucial. Job creation strategies involves taking
innovative steps to identify new job opportunities and developing new industries and sector
where people with low job skills can also be intrigated. This is dependent on broad structural
reforms such as boosting investment, promoting social advancement and improving information
and communication technology. South-Asian regions can take lessons from Australia which
took the step to identify various scenarios where job can be created. This strategy is very relevant
with the evolving nature of jobs today. In the future, as there will be fewer and fewer jobs within
the service sector of the company, the competition in the domestic market is likely to increase
(Hajkowicz et al., 2016). Hence, promoting digital literacy and challenging perceptions about job
type is important so that youths in South-East Asia are ready to embrace dynamic and rapidly
changing employment market of the future.
Discussion:
An analysis of the scholarly evidences discussed above suggests that there are complex
and numerous causes behind the widespread prevalence of youth unemployment on a global
basis. Beyond the obligation of ensuring equal access to education to every youth, it has been
found that education is not sufficiently personalised to the preferences and demands of the labour
market, thereby subsequently leading to severe consequences. According to Kirkegaard (2014)
lack of education makes it difficult for the youth to find employment opportunities and also
makes it difficult for employers to hire people with adequate skills. Inflexibility of the labour
market and associated regulations is another major cause that leads to unemployment in
developing countries (Baah-Boateng 2016). Time and again it has been found that employers

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typically become conscious about recruiting more than a pre-determined proportion of workers,
based on stringent employment protection regulations (Ghoshray, Ordóñez & Sala, 2016). In
addition, several temporary work practices such as, seasonal jobs, internships and contractual
positions leave the youth in unwarranted circumstances. Owing to the fact that these temporary
work types last for a short duration, the youth typically lose their job during downsizing of
companies (Kopečná, 2016). Combined with the economic crisis and the lack of sufficient job
creation in many countries, it has resulted in high unemployment rates around the world and the
development of a skills crisis. Furthermore, presence of high educational attainment does not
ensure a secure job, which thereby increases the rates of unemployment in a nation
(Oesingmann, 2017).
When combined with the economic crisis that is prevalent in South-East Asian countries,
the process of skill development also gets impeded. In addition, national economies that do not
demonstrate a steady growth, most often grapple with enormous unemployment difficulties that
creates a direct negative consequence on the youth (Crowley & Cominetti, 2014). Furthermore,
the business sector is largely responsible for creating support services and novel networks of
commercial initiatives. Honwana (2014) opined that comparable to their part in social
accountability, industries are also responsible for paving the way for a strong platform that
brings about youth development and provides them the necessary guidance and support. Some
other factors that are also imperative in snowballing the rates of youth unemployment include
role of family guidance, expectations from young job applicants, and the ever increasing degrees
of academization (Hällsten, Edling & Rydgren, 2017).
Another major strategy that can prove beneficial in lowering rates of unemployment
includes promotion of active citizenship, solidarity, and social inclusion. It is evident from the

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scholarly articles discussed above that the youths residing in South Asian nations have fewer
opportunities of having high educational attainment, which in turn affects their employment
status (Bessant & Watts, 2014). The social investment strategy has also proved crucial in
addressing the problem of unemployment. This strategy is based on the fact that the youth often
gave limited information and knowledge about jobs, in addition to restricted social influence
(Kvist, 2015). Hence, investment by large and small enterprises in a sustainable and socially
conscious manner will prove effective in bringing about a positive change, while obtaining
financial return as well (Heller, 2014).
In other words, formulation of a well-targeted program that addresses the effects of youth
unemployment will act effective in generating a meaningful behavioural change, besides giving
the target population, the scope to work. This will increase the likelihood of young people to
select careers that are fittings their interests, while utilising the skills and expertise (Brixiová,
Ncube & Bicaba, 2015). Encouraging entrepreneurship is also crucial to generating wealth and
steering economic growth and employment. Providing support to small business acts beneficial
in creating an independent youth generation. With the aim of increasing employment
opportunities among the young adults, welfare distribution must also be re-evaluated, which in
turn acts imperative in allowing the youth to claim unemployment benefits and also facilitates
exploration of different service avenues (Chevalier, 2016). Shifting towards a toll scheme for the
recruitment and training of youth in areas of skilled shortage has also begun observing success,
and reaping the reimbursements of having a dependably accomplished workforce (Nayak, 2016).
The literature review is also in accordance with the fact that implementing provisions for dual
vocational training that include a combination of classroom training and acquiring skills on-the-
job also help employers hire professionals, who meet the standards of the labour market.

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Therefore, lowering rates of occupational immobility will play central role in addressing youth
unemployment rates.
Recommendations:
Based on the review of barriers and challenges in promoting youth unemployment in
South East Asia, the following recommendation has been proposed to promote youth
employment in the region:
1. Accurate forecasting and monitoring of the labour market: The first step that is
critical for South-East Asian countries struggling with youth unemployment issue is to
take efforts to accurately monitor the labor market and identify skill shortage and other
sector based issues. The information should be disseminated to the education and training
sector to appropriate deal with mismatch related issues. In the area of problems related to
industry based barrier to employment, there is need to implement policy changes so that
more job is created for disadvantaged youths (Cooney et al., 2016).
2. Addressing barriers for disadvantaged youths: It is recommended that government
and social organizations of South-East Asian countries focus on reducing barrier to
employability for disadvantaged youths. As high school drop out rate and lack of social
support is the reason behind poor access to formal education, accelerating cash transfer
scheme is essential to ensure basic education is given to all irrespective of economic
status.

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3. Skill building strategies: Employers and policy makers should focus on developing a
process for skill building of youths so that they become capable enough to manage
uncertainties and challenges in the job and acquire all skills needed for employment.
4. Modifying policies and regulations: The high rate of youth unemployment issues also
call for policy reforms in the regions. Policy makers need to target development of
infrastructure and new job creation opportunities so that maximum youth can be absorbed
in the labor market. Employment protection reforms and deregulation strategies are need
as rigid employment protection legislation is the major cause behind challenges in
integration of youth in the labor market (Gebel & Giesecke, 2016).
5. Changing the business environment: It is also recommended to modify the business
environment in South-East Asia so that nature of jobs becomes more flexible and access
to labour market is enhanced.
6. Implementing supportive interventions for youths: Supportive interventions like
reforming education system, developing policy units and supporting industries that are
declining or that have minimum youth participation is critical to improve figures related
to low unemployment rate in South-East Asia.
Conclusion:
To conclude, the main purpose of this literature review was to identify potential cause
and consequence of youth unemployment and identify possible strategies to reduce youth
unemployment rate in South-East Asia. The review of literature on youth unemployment issues
in developed countries revealed several cause behind poor youth unemployment rate in
developing and developed countries. Some cause identified included poor youth participation in

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sector based jobs like construction industries, influence of gender/culture based norms,
discrimination and stereotyping and imbalance in population-employment ratio. The review of
youth unemployment issues particularly in South-East region indicated poor job creation ability,
discrimination and stereotyping and poor economic development as the some of the barrier to
successful and long-term acquisition of jobs for youths (Baah-Boateng, 2016; Hamid et al.
(2018). These findings indicate the need for both structural and policy based reform in South-
East Asian countries.
The literature review also gave insight into possible strategies that has been taken in the
past to tackle with youth unemployment. Firstly, regional integration strategy was found as an
effective intervention in supporting job creation and overcoming the problem of increase in
youth population (Kararach, Hanson & Léautier, 2011). This intervention gives the implication
that regional based policies are effective in addressing infrastructural limitation and diversifying
economy of the region. Active labor market policy was also identified as an effective strategy in
addressing supporting youths (Caliendo & Schmidl, 2016). Some relevant programs are effective
in increasing youth chances related to employment includes training course, public work
program, job search assistance program and subsidized employment. However, the critical
review of each of these programs suggests that job assistance program is not effective in
increasing employment rate. In addition, as the result was evaluated for European countries,
which are developed countries, all the program cannot fit and resolve country specific issues
found in South-East Asian regions.
As disadvantaged youths living in conflict zones or remotes regions of South East Asia
are most likely to suffer from disadvantage in relation to employment, the literature review gives
the implication to provide more on-the job training schemes and vocational training need to be

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increased in South-East Asia so that skill gap in relation to job seeking is minimized and youths
are empower to encounter the challenges with confidence. The significance of the findings
obtained from this review is that it gives recruiters and labour sector of South East Asia many
directions regarding the areas they should focus on to increase youth’s chances of employment in
different industries. This will help in that innovative thinking and proper utilization of resource is
needed to create new job scenarios and appropriate implement support initiative to prepare the
young workforce to dynamic jobs in South-East Asia.

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