Analysis of Youth Unemployment Issues in South East Asia

This report presents a literature review focused on youth unemployment issues in South East Asia. It begins with an abstract summarizing the global and regional significance of the problem. The introduction highlights the importance of youth for economic development and the challenges posed by high unemployment rates. The report then outlines the methods used, including database searches (CINAHL, PubMed, and Google Scholar) and the application of inclusion and exclusion criteria. The core of the report is the literature review, which explores the causes and consequences of youth unemployment, such as imbalances in employment-to-population ratios, gender disparities, and the impact of social, political, and economic factors. It also examines strategies to prevent youth unemployment, including regional integration, infrastructure development, income support, and social protection measures. The discussion section synthesizes the findings, followed by recommendations for addressing youth unemployment in South East Asia. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and their implications, supported by a comprehensive list of references.

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

1YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT
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.

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

3YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT
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

4YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT
(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:

5YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT
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

6YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT
 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)

7YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT
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

8YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT
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

9YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT
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

10YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT
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

11YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT
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