GENEVA, Aug. 11 (Xinhuanet) -- Global youth unemployment has risen to record high levels over the past decade with people aged 15 to 24 now representing nearly half the world's jobless, the International Labor Organization (ILO) says in a report released Wednesday.

    "Global Employment Trends for Youth 2004", a study prepared by the ILO's Employment Strategy Department, found that some 88 million young people are unemployed worldwide.

    The study says that while the youth sector represents a quarterof the working age population (aged 15 to 64), young people made up some 47 percent of the total 186 million people out of work worldwide in 2003.

    The report says the 2003 global youth unemployment rate of 14.4percent is more than 25 per cent higher than the level of 10 yearsago.

    Youth unemployment rates in 2003 were highest in the Middle East and North Africa (25.6 percent), sub-Saharan Africa (21 percent), countries classified as transitional economies (18.6 percent), Latin America and the Caribbean (16.6 percent), Southeast Asia (16.4 percent), South Asia (13.9 percent), countries with industrialized economies (13.4 percent) and East Asia (7.0 percent).

    But the problem goes far beyond the large number of young unemployed people, the ILO says. Young people represent some 130 million of the world's 550 million working poor who work but are unable to lift themselves and their families above the equivalent of one US dollar per day poverty line.

    It says young people have more difficulty in finding work than their adult counterparts and those who can find work often face long working hours, short-term or informal contracts, low pay and little or no social protection such as social security or other social benefits.

    Tackling youth unemployment and the consequent vulnerabilities and feelings of exclusion would be a significant contribution to the global economy, the ILO believes.

    According to the report, halving the world youth unemployment rate would add at least 2.2 trillion US dollars to global GDP, equal to around four percent of the 2003 global GDP value. Furthermore, the report points out that people who get a good start to working life are less likely to experience prolonged unemployment later.

    "We are wasting an important part of the energy and talent of the most educated youth generation the world has ever had," said ILO Director-General Juan Somavia in the report.

    "Enlarging the chances of young people to find and keep decent work is absolutely critical to achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals," he added. Enditem