We have consecutive national holidays this month – what is called “Silver Week” made up of the Respect for the Aged Day, which falls on the third Monday of the month, in conjunction with Autumnal Equinox. So we have just celebrated the elderly people lately, but our topic this month is youth employment, as we had the International Youth Day last month and the ILO published “World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends for Youth 2016."  Summary of the 'World Employment and Social Outlook 2016: Trends for Youth' for reference. The report estimates that the global unemployment rate of youth aged 15-24 is 13.1 % (5.8 % for people aged 25 or above), the total unemployed youth 71 million people, and that these figures will remain at this level in 2017. Among working youth, 37.7 % or 156 million people live in poverty - Reference 1 - (26 % for people aged 25 or above). The working youth poverty rate shows considerable cross-regional difference: it nearly reaches 70 % in Sub-Sahara Africa, and is also high in Southern Asia (49 %) or Arab states (39 %). Youth are taking place of the elderly as the age group at the highest risk of poverty - Reference 2 - in developed countries. The rate of young workers who are classified as being at risk of poverty is 12.9 % (9.6 % for people aged 25-54) in the EU-28 in 2014, and the poverty risk exceeds 20 % in some countries. Labour market indicators generally show wider gaps between women and men for the higher age brackets, but gender gap already exists among youth. The labour force participation rate is 53.9 % for young men and 37.3 % for young women, and the disparity grows larger especially in Southern Asia (the female rate 32.9 percent point lower than the male’s), Arab states (32.3 % percent point lower), and Northern Africa (30.2 percent point lower). Young people are willing to move to other countries permanently, when prompted by factors such as high domestic unemployment rates, higher risk of working poverty, and lack of employment opportunities for high-quality jobs. The global rate of youth aged 15-29 who wish to migrate reached 20 % in 2015; the rate is especially high in Sub-Sahara Africa,Latin America and the Caribbean (both 38 %), and Eastern Europe (37 %). As for Japan, the unemployment rate for youth aged 15-24 was 5.5 % in 2015. Though this is higher than 3.4 %, the rate for people aged 15-64, it shows a marked decline compared to 9.4 % (5.1 % for people aged 15-64) in 2010, which is the year most grievously hit by the global financial crisis. One reason for the low youth unemployment rate lies in the conventional employment practice that is still current in this nation; companies yearly recruit new graduates while they are still in college, give unofficial offers of jobs to successful candidates, and have them start on the job immediately after they graduate. This practice causes differences in employment rates between different years of graduation, but has contributed to a rise in the employment rates of new graduates in recent years. Yet, it does pose challenges in that 30 % of college graduates and 40 % of high school graduates quit within three years of graduation, and that the young population, compared to prime age groups, have a higher rate of people employed in temporary or part-time positions because permanent or full-time jobs were not available. The elderly have the recommendation for the elderly workers youth, however, do not have any ILO instrument formed specifically for their sake. Yet, the ILO works on youth employment as one of its important activities. We often choose this matter for agenda at the International Labour Conference, most recently adopting a resolution titled “The youth employment crisis: A call for action” at the 101st conference in 2012. The ILO began the Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth in February 2016. This initiative, launched to face the global youth employment crisis mobilizing the entire UN system, aims to create decent work for young people and support them in their transitions from education into work. Youth employment is one of the main goals of the UN’s new development visions, and the UN System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB) supports this initiative as one of its main priority items. The Director-General of the ILO issues a statement on the International Youth Day annually, and this year, he stated that young people, who shape the future, have the potential to accelerate the 2030 agenda, and that providing them with opportunities for productive decent work was the best way to help them realize their hope, improve living conditions and actively participate in society. The ILO Office for Japan has also posted Japanese translation for the executive summary of “The World Employment and Social Outlook - Trends 2016” on its website. This paper warns that continuing high rates of unemployment worldwide and chronic vulnerable employment in many developing or emerging economies are still deeply affecting the world of work. We do hope that our resources may spark your interest in global unemployment trends. Reference 1.   Working people who live in extreme or moderate poverty, living on less than 3.10 USD per capita per day. Reference 2.   Income levels of less than 60 % of median income.