Page 61 - U4SSC KPIs Verification Manual - A guide for verifiers

Dimension Economy
Sub-Dimension Productivity

Category Employment
KPI Name Youth Unemployment Rate
KPI No. EC: P: EM: 2C Type: Core Type: Structural

Definition / Percentage of the city youth labour force that is unemployed
Description

Rationale / Youth unemployment is indicative of a country’s economic health. In periods of
Interpretation / economic contraction, new hires are often fired first, resulting in youth being hit
Benchmarking especially hard.
Higher rates of youth unemployment are correlated with lower productivity,
competitiveness, limited lifetime earnings and lower happiness.
Youth unemployment leads to increases in public spending, income inequality,
feelings of isolation and marginalization, burdens on youth and families, mental
health issues and emigration of talent.
Since youth unemployment is correlated with national unemployment figures, city
benchmarks should take national rates into consideration.
Unemployed youth shall refer to individuals:
• who are above the legal working age and under 24 years of age;
• who are currently without work;
• who are actively seeking work in a recent past period (past four weeks); and
• who are currently available for work.
Youth who did not look for work but have a future labour market stake
(arrangements for a future job start) are counted as unemployed (International
Labour Organization).
A declining trend and lower values are considered a positive sign of progress.
Sources NOTE – ILO. Key indicators of youth labour markets: Concepts, definitions and
tabulations. Retrieved from <http:// www .ilo .org/ wcmsp5/ groups/ public/ @ ed
_emp/ documents/ in structiona lmaterial/ wcms _140860 .pdf>
Methodology Calculate as:

Numerator: Total number of the city youth labour force that is unemployed.
Denominator: Total number of the city youth labour force.
Multiply by 100.
As an alternative, and where available, government statistics can be reported
directly instead of calculating the indicator value.

U4SSC KPIs Verification Manual-A guide for verifiers 51