Alongside the crisis in the euro zone, youth unemployment has been the hot topic of the news in these final weeks of this year. The BBC's 'The World Speaks' survey named unemployment as the world's fastest-rising concern. And people are right to be concerned, as the figures are alarming.
In Asia, young people account for around 20 per cent of the population yet make up almost half of the region's jobless. They are at least three times more likely than adults to be out of a job.
Globally, about 70million young people are unemployed, and if we add to that the estimated 152million young people living on less than US$1.25 per day, we have some 225 million people in a very precarious situation.
Those young people who are in work, whatever their pay, face more gloom. During a recession, young people are usually the last to be hired and first to be fired, largely due to lack of work experience.
When it comes to entering the job market, those who have been lucky enough to go to university face a difficult transition, either due to a skills mismatch or a lack of emphasis on employable skills. In the US for example, according to the US National Association of Manufacturers, manufacturers have 600,000 unfilled positions due to a lack of qualified workers.
This is a huge waste of human capital. A scarred generation is in the making, facing a dangerous mix of high unemployment, precarious work and increased inactivity in developed countries, and persistently high poverty in the developing world.
Against this background, it is no wonder that the young are angry and frustrated, and have played a highly visible and critical role in this year's protests for change.