ManpowerGroup: Engage Unemployed Youth To Ease Talent Shortages

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan. 24, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- ManpowerGroup (NYSE: MAN), the world leader in innovative workforce solutions and World Economic Forum (WEF) strategic partner, asserts that coordinated action in four key areas is needed to tackle chronic levels of youth unemployment worldwide, with the topic high on the agenda at the WEF Annual Meeting.

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ManpowerGroup recommends targeted actions in: creating jobs and promoting entrepreneurship; helping young people acquire economically relevant skills; assisting youth's workforce entry; and developing national strategies to scale career development programs.

The International Labor Organization projects a global youth unemployment rate of 12.7% by 2017. In the Eurozone, the youth unemployment rate currently stands at 24.4%, up from 15% in March 2008. In Greece alone, 57.6% of young people are out of work. Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, stated in her opening plenary remarks in Davos yesterday that of the 202 million people the ILO reports are unemployed, two out of five are under the age of 24.            

"Young people are losing hope of finding jobs, and many have stopped searching for work altogether. They are fast becoming a generation that sees no path to success," said Jonas Prising, ManpowerGroup President and Junior Achievement USA board member. "Opportunities can be created for youth by providing the required tools and training to ensure they acquire the skills and expertise needed. There are examples of initiatives that have shown promise, but the sheer scale of the issue requires a dedicated and focused effort to succeed."

Prising today participated in the WEF session, " Preventing a Lost Generation," exploring how Europe's leaders can engage 14 million unemployed young people in the workforce. ManpowerGroup recently released two reports, " How Policy Makers Can Boost Youth Employment" and " Wanted: Energized, Career-Driven Youth." Both reports recommend strategies to prevent an entire generation from being excluded from the labor market, at a time when ManpowerGroup's research found that more than one-third of employers globally are having difficulty filling open positions. Both reports can be downloaded from: http://www.manpowergroup.com/research/research.cfm

Klaus Schwab, World Economic Forum Founder and Executive Chairman, wrote a blog on the subject of Europe's youth unemployment problem for The Huffington Post based on his new book, The Re-emergence of Europe, citing a report produced jointly by WEF and ManpowerGroup. The report, titled " Youth Unemployment Challenges and Solutions", identified solutions to youth unemployment. The blog can be viewed at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/klaus-schwab/the-reemergence-of-europe_3_b_2489823.html?utm_hp_ref=tw

ManpowerGroup's recommendations to better align skills supply and demand in the labor market include convening employers and educators to create a shared, pragmatic language of skills specifications that is job-relevant and can help coordinate training resources, improve career guidance resources for young people at all stages of the education process, improve access to training that is clearly linked to employment outcomes, and support youth-friendly technology platforms, such as mobile devices to deliver information and services.

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