Youth Unemployment Issues in South East Asia

Running head: YOUTH EMPLOYMENT
Youth unemployment issues in south East Asia
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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